HIGHER    GROUND 


HINTS   TOWARD    SETTLING 


THE     LABOR     TROUBLES 


RICHER  GROUND 


HINTS  TOWARD    SETTLING 

THE    LABOR    TROUBLES 

BY 
AUGUSTUS   JACOBSON 


CHICAGO 

A.   C.  McCLURG  AND    COMPANY 
1888 


COPYRIGHT 
BY  A.  C.  MCCLURG  AND  COMPANY 

A.D.  1887 


The  truth  is  that  we  are  arrived  at  one  of  those 
periods  in  the  progress  of  society  when  the  constitu- 
tion naturally  undergoes  a  change,  just  as  it  did  two 
centuries  ago.  It  was  impossible  then  for  the  king 
to  keep  down  the  higher  part  of  the  middle  classes ;  it 
is  impossible  now  to  keep  down  the  middle  and  lower 
parts  of  them.  All  that  resistance  to  these  natural 
changes  can  effect  is  to  derange  their  operation,  and 
make  them  act  violently  and  mischievously,  instead  of 
healthfully,  or  at  least  harmlessly.  The  old  state  of 
things  is  gone  past  recall,  and  all  the  efforts  of  all  the 
Tories  cannot  save  it ;  but  they  may  by  their  folly, 
as  they  did  in  France,  get  us  a  wild  democracy  or  a 
military  despotism  in  the  room  of  it,  instead  of  letting 
it  change  quietly  into  what  is  merely  a  new  modifica- 
tion of  the  old  state.  One  would  think  that  people  who 
talk  against  change  were  literally  as  well  as  metaphori- 
cally blind,  and  really  did  not  see  that  everything  in 
themselves  and  around  them  is  changing  every  hour 
by  the  necessary  laws  of  its  being. 

There  is  nothing  so  revolutionary,  because  there 
is  nothing  so  unnatural  and  so  convulsive  to  society, 
as  the  strain  to  keep  things  fixed,  when  all  the  world 
is,  by  the  very  law  of  its  creation,  in  eternal  progress ; 
and  the  cause  of  all  the  evils  of  the  world  may  be 
traced  to  that  natural  but  most  deadly  error  of  human 
indolence  and  corruption — that  our  business  is  to  pre- 
serve and  not  to  improve.  —  DR.  THOMAS  ARNOLD, 
Headmaster  of  Rugby,  pending  the  Reform  agitation 
in  England,  April,  1831. 


6  HIGHER   GROUND. 

Quixotism  or  Utopianism,  — that  is  another  of  the 
Devil's  pet  words.  I  believe  the  quiet  admission  which 
we  are  all  of  us  ready  to  make,  that  because  things 
have  long  been  wrong  it  is  impossible  they  should 
ever  be  right,  is  one  of  the  most  fatal  sources  of 
misery  and  crime  from  which  this  world  suffers. 
Whenever  you  hear  a  man  dissuading  you  from  at- 
tempting to  do  well  on  the  ground  that  perfection  is 
"  Utopian,"  beware  of  that  man.  Cast  the  word  out 
of  your  dictionary  altogether^  there  is  no  need  for 
it.  Things  are  either  possible  or  impossible  —  you 
can  easily  determine  which  —  in  any  given  state  of 
human  science.  If  the  thing  is  impossible,  you  need 
not  trouble  yourselves  about  it;  if  possible,  try  for  it. 
—  JOHN  RUSKIN. 


CONTENTS. 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION 9 

THE  MANUAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL 103 

APPENDIX. 165 


HIGHER    GROUND. 

THE   LABOR   QUESTION. 

I. 

THE  problem  of  problems  in  all  ages  has 
been  the  one  which  is  beginning  to  press 
upon  us  now,  and  that  is,  How  to  prevent  the 
few  from  getting  all  there  is  on  the  earth  ;  how 
to  keep  the  rich  from  getting  richer  and  the 
poor  from  getting  poorer ;  how  to  secure  a  fair 
distribution  of  property  and  the  comforts  and 
conveniences  of  life  for  all  men  and  women. 

Everybody  wants  to  settle  the  labor  ques- 
tion, but  nobody  is  willing  to  sacrifice  any- 
thing to  settle  it ;  nobody  appears  to  be  willing 
to  pay  out  any  money  to  settle  it.  The  labor 
question  will  not  be  settled  without  sacrifice ; 
it  will  not  be  settled  without  a  large  expendi- 
ture of  money.  To  settle  the  labor  question 
without  sacrifice  would  be  to  get  something  for 
nothing.  The  settlement  of  the  labor  ques- 
tion will  in  some  way  have  to  be  paid  for. 


10  HIGHER   GROUND. 


II. 

In  the  way  of  disturbance  of  business,  the 
labor  question  has  already  cost  this  country 
hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  ;  and  the  agita- 
tion has  hardly  yet  begun.  There  are  now  a 
million  of  men  in  the  ranks  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor,  with  perhaps  as  many  more  enrolled 
in  other  labor  organizations,  with  perpetual 
strikes  and  attendant  lawlessness.  Strikes 
and  lawlessness  cost  money,  not  only  to  the 
strikers  and  the  lawless,  but  to  the  general 
community.  There  is  rarely  a  month  now 
when  the  militia  is  not  in  active  service  ;  and 
it  costs  money  to  keep  the  militia  in  active 
service.  In  the  month  of  May,  1886,  there 
were  two  hundred  militia  companies  in  the 
course  of  formation  in  the  State  of  Illinois  ; 
twenty  regiments  of  a  thousand  men  each,  — 
twenty  thousand  men  ;  as  large  an  army  as 
the  Lieutenant-General  of  the  United  States 
commands.  Pinkerton's  private  army1  now 
numbers  thousands  of  soldiers  ;  and  the  large 
coal  corporations  maintain  a  private  army 
of  their  own.  The  Pinkerton  army  and  the 
1  See  Appendix,  I. 


LABOR  QUESTION.  II 

corporation  army  could  probably  upon  any 
given  day  muster  a  greater  number  of  effect- 
ive men  in  New  York,  Pittsburgh,  or  Chicago, 
than  the  army  of  the  United  States.  The 
agitation  for  the  increase  of  the  regular  army 
is  perpetual.  In  the  midst  of  profound  peace, 
the  merchants  of  Chicago  have  raised  several 
hundred  thousand  dollars  to  donate  to  the 
United  States  a  tract  of  land  in  order  to  se- 
cure the  location  in  Chicago  of  a  military 
post ;  and  the  merchants  have  contributed 
this  money  solely  from  fear  of  lawlessness. 


12  HIGHER   GROUND. 


III. 


Like  the  slavery  question,  which  led  to  war, 
the  labor  question  is  an  irrepressible  conflict. 
The  war  between  the  States  grew  out  of  a 
labor  question.  It  was  a  war  for  free  labor. 
It  was  not  till  the  day  of  Appomattox  that  in 
this  country  every  laborer  became  a  free  man. 
There  has  rarely  in  the  world  been  a  question 
worth  discussing  that  has  not  been  in  some 
way  a  labor  question,  and  the  world  will  prob- 
ably never  be  without  labor  questions.  The 
story  of  Adam  and  Eve  in  Paradise  ends 
with  a  statement  of  the  condition  of  the  la- 
borer of  that  early  day  :  "  In  the  sweat  of 
thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread  till  thou  return 
unto  the  ground."  Let  us  be  fair.  If  we  who 
do  not  labor  with  our  hands  and  yet  enjoy 
more  of  the  good  things  of  life  than  if  we  did, 
if  we,  all  of  us,  nevertheless  want  shorter 
hours,  more  pay,  and  a  vacation  every  year, 
why  should  we  think  it  unreasonable  for  the 
man  who  gets  $1.50  a  day  and  never  has  a  va- 
cation to  want  shorter  hours  and  more  pay  ? 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  13 

If  there  is  any  one  thing  that  is  praiseworthy 
in  a  man  it  is  by  all  lawful  means  to  seek  to 
improve  his  condition,  to  provide  for  his  chil- 
dren so  as  to  give  them  a  good  start  in  life, 
and  to  provide  for  his  own  declining  years. 


14  HIGHER   GROUND. 


IV. 


I  say  that  the  settlement  of  the  labor  ques- 
tion will  have  to  be  paid  for.  In  the  case  of 
slavery  it  would  have  been  better  for  us,  far 
better  for  us,  to  have  paid  for  the  slaves  thrice 
over.  Had  we  paid  for  the  slaves  thrice  over 
we  should  then  have  saved  thousands  of  mil- 
lions of  money,  and  we  should  have  saved 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives  and  all  the 
miseries  of  the  war.  The  experience  we  had 
with  the  slavery  question  admonishes  us  to 
see  to  it  that  the  labor  question  be  settled 
peaceably  and  from  the  foundation.  There 
were  periodical  settlements  of  the  slavery 
question  ;  there  were  compromises  and  settle- 
ments, in  1789,  in  1820,  and  in  1850;  but 
from  first  to  last  there  was  only  one  thing 
that  could  settle  the  slavery  question,  and 
that  one  thing  was  freedom  for  the  slaves. 

The  freedom  of  all  the  slaves  we  could  have 
bought  outright  with  money.  The  solution 
of  the  labor  question  we  can  buy  outright 
with  money.  And  if  we  do  not  choose  to 
spend  the  money  directly  now,  we  shall  be 
forced  to  spend  it  indirectly  later  on.  If  we 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  15 

do  not  choose  to  spend  the  one  dollar  now, 
we  shall  be  forced  to  spend  the  ten  dollars 
later.  The  most  expensive  method  of  settling 
things  is  to  settle  them  by  means  of  lawless- 
ness and  soldiers. 


1 6  HIGHER   GROUND, 


V. 


The  demand  of  the  man  who  is  at  the  bot- 
tom for  better  things  in  life,  is  in  the  nature 
of  things.  It  follows  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence and  the  enfranchisement  of  man  as 
summer  follows  spring.  It  is  a  demand  which 
sooner  or  later  must  be  met,  and  it  is  in  the 
interest  of  everybody  that  it  should  be  met. 
Last  year  saw  the  enfranchisement  of  two  mil- 
lions of  voters  in  England.  This  year  has 
seen  the  agitation  for  Home  Rule  in  Ireland, 
and  the  labor  question  is  at  the  fore  all  over 
Europe  and  the  United  States.  The  idea 
that  the  general  condition  of  man  must  be 
improved  is  in  the  air.  It  comes  of  the  in- 
vention of  gunpowder.  It  comes  of  the  steam- 
engine.  It  comes  of  the  printing-press.  The 
movement  is  as  irresistible  as  Niagara.  We 
could  n't  stop  it  if  we  would,  and  I  for  one 
would  n't  stop  it  if  I  could.  All  that  we  can 
do  about  it  is  to  see  that  all  changes  shall 
come  without  violence  and  without  bloodshed, 
peaceably  and  beneficently.  In  this  matter, 
as  in  all  matters  of  social  agitation,  an  ounce 
of  prevention  is  worth  a  great  deal  more  than 
a  pound  of  cure. 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  17 


VI. 

In  modern  days  there  has  been  a  steady 
amelioration  in  the  condition  of  men  who 
labor  with  their  hands.  The  laboring-man 
has  become  politically  free.  He  has  obtained 
a  small  degree  of  intelligence.  Shall  he  now 
permit  the  betterment  of  his  condition  to  come 
to  a  stand-still  ?  Why  should  he  now  permit 
his  own  improvement  to  come  to  a  stand-still? 
But  great  as  has  been  the  amelioration  of  the 
common  average  man,  the  many  are  still  the 
foot-ball  of  the  few. 

Society  has  been  from  the  beginning  of  time 
and  is  now  so  organized  as  to  get  as  much  as 
possible  out  of  the  man  who  labors  with  his 
hands  and  to  give  him  in  return  as  little  as 
possible.  And  when  I  speak  of  the  man  who 
labors  with  his  hands,  I  mean  not  only  the 
man  who  in  city  or  country  works  for  wages 
but  likewise  the  farmer  who  works  for  himself. 
The  man  who  works  with  his  hands  sells  by 
the  quantity  and  at  the  lowest  possible  price 
all  he  produces.  Whatever  he  has  to  buy  he 
buys  at  the  highest  retail  price.  In  the  game 
of  life  the  cards  are  stocked  against  the  man 
who  labors  with  his  hands. 


1 8  HIGHER  GROUND. 


VII. 

The  average  life  of  the  factory  girl  is  only 
thirty  years.  The  children  who  work  in  the 
factory  look  like  little  old  men  and  women  ; 
and  they  are  more  vicious  than  old  men  and 
old  women,  — rotten  before  they  are  ripe.  The 
child  who  enters  a  factory  as  an  operative 
leaves  hope  behind.  There  are  exceptions,  — 
of  course  there  are  exceptions  ;  yet  the  excep- 
tions only  prove  the  rule.  The  factory  is  a 
Moloch  without  mercy.  The  street-railroad 
sends  the  car  horse,  driver,  and  conductor  alike 
to  an  early  grave.  The  worker  in  lead  soon  be- 
comes a  chronic  invalid,  and  the  stone-cutter 
at  thirty  dies  of  consumption.  In  our  cities 
there  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  virtuous 
women  who  have  abandoned  all  hope,  for 
whom  there  is  in  the  future  nothing  but  ill- 
health,  an  early  grave,  or  a  hopeless  old  age  of 
infirmity  and  want.  Think  of  the  women  who 
eke  out  a  miserable  existence  by  sewing  the 
clothes  we  wear.  They  sew  from  early  morn 
till  late  at  night,  in  summer  burning  with 
heat,  in  winter  shivering  with  cold,  with 
wretched  and  insufficient  food,  insufficient 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  19 

sleep,  insufficient  clothing,  insufficient  exer- 
cise, wretched  surroundings,  and  never  a  whiff 
of  fresh  air.  In  by  far  the  greater  number  of 
pursuits,  the  men  and  women  who  work  with 
their  hands  risk  their  health  and  their  lives 
with  their  every  breath.  And  no  matter  how 
soon  they  sicken  and  die,  others  stand  willing 
and  anxious  to  take  their  places.  The  very 
chance  to  work  is  a  boon.  Among  laboring 
people  vice  and  crime  are  bred  of  want,  and 
children  are  born  destined  inevitably  for  the 
brothel  and  the  penitentiary.  And  the  in- 
crease of  wealth  goes  not  to  the  man  who 
works  with  his  hands,  but  to  the  man  who 
works  with  his  head.  The  increase  of  wealth 
goes  not  to  the  worker,  but  to  the  schemer. 


20  HIGHER   GROUND. 


VIII. 

Look  at  the  invention  of  the  steam-engine. 
Nearly  all  the  wealth  of  modern  times  is 
earned  by  steam,  which  does  for  man  his 
work.  The  wealth  which  steam  earns  should 
surely  belong  to  all  mankind.  Do  the  many 
get  the  benefit  of  it  ?  Not  to  any  great  ex- 
tent. The  money  which  steam  earns  goes 
into  the  hands  not  of  the  many,  but  of  the  few. 
If  the  money  which  steam  earns  went  into  the 
pockets  of  the  many,  to  whom  it  belongs,  we 
should  to-day  have  an  ideal  people,  a  nation 
without  an  ignorant  man  and  without  a 
pauper. 

The  average  working-man  to-day  by  means 
of  steam  does  as  much  work  as  ten  men  did  a 
century  ago,  but  he  gets  little  better  food,  he 
gets  little  better  clothing,  he  gets  little  better 
instruction,  he  lives  in  a  hovel,  he  is  out  of 
employment  periodically,  and  he  and  his  are 
full  of  anxiety  for  the  future.  The  money 
which  steam  earns,  and  which  should  go  to 
the  millions,  goes  to  the  few,  and  the  many 
hopelessly  drudge  and  slave  on. 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  21 


IX. 

The  wealth  which  steam  has  brought   us 
has  come  upon  us  so  suddenly  that  the  people 
have  not  been  prepared  to  take  advantage  of 
it.     The  common  average  man  has  been  un- 
able to  get  his  share.     While  the  wealth  of 
the  nation  has  increased  in  a  ratio  never  be- 
fore equalled,  we  have  allowed  the  training  of 
the  people  to  stand  substantially  still.     There 
not  being  general  intelligence  enough  among 
the   people  to   deal  with   the   problem,  from 
want  of   knowledge,  from  want  of  foresight, 
we  have  allowed  the  enormous  wealth  brought 
us  by  steam  to  be  put  upon  a  card  and  seized 
by  the  few.     It  is  as  if   a  few  Hebrew  Jay 
Goulds  had  seized  upon  all  the  manna  in  the 
Wilderness.      Moses   wisely  did   not   permit 
the  manna  to  be  thus  cornered.     Moses  made 
wise  regulations  which  prevented  the  corner- 
ing of  the  manna  in  the  Wilderness.     But 
our  wealth,  which  is  our  manna,  has   been 
cornered.     In  this  land,  in  which  there  is  an 
abundance  for  everybody,  multitudes  are  suf- 
fering for  the  necessaries  of  life.     It  is  high 
time  to  see  to  it  that  there  shall  be  a  fairer 
distribution  of  the  good  things  of  this  world. 


22  HIGHER   GROUND. 


X. 

To  achieve  better  things  for  the  man  who 
is  the  under-dog  in  life's  fight,  the  one  thing 
that  can  never  be  of  any  use  is  lawlessness. 
A  cause  which,  in  this  land  of  free  speech, 
proceeds  in  any  other  way  than  the  good  old 
Anglo-Saxon  and  Anglo-American  way  of 
convincing  by  argument,  is  lost  from  the 
start.  If  a  cause  is  good  the  majority  will 
eventually  be  convinced.  The  end  and  aim 
and  object  of  government  in  this  country  is 
to  secure  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest 
number.  In  this  country  it  is  impossible  to 
keep  common-sense  from  being  eventually 
enacted  into  law.  The  people  may  be  slow 
to  see  where  their  interests  lie,  but  when 
they  do  see  it  the  measure  which  furthers 
their  interest  becomes  immediately  the  law 
of  the  land.  If  the  man  who  is  the  law- 
maker for  the  time  being  refuses  to  enact 
into  law  the  will  of  the  people,  there  is  al- 
ways another  man  who  is  very  anxious  to 
become  a  law-maker  upon  the  express  con- 
dition of  doing  what  the  people  want. 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  2$ 

In  the  right  to  vote  and  to  levy  taxes,  the 
struggling  multitude  have  the  power  not  only 
peaceably  to  right  every  wrong  under  which 
they  suffer,  but  they  have  moreover  the  power 
to  provide  peaceably  for  their  own  indefinite 
elevation. 

The  labor  question  is  one  of  hours  and 
wages,  but  it  is  not  a  mere  question  of  fewer 
hours  and  more  pay.  Suppose  that  every  la- 
boring man  in  the  country  could  have  immedi- 
ately more  pay  for  less  work  ;  suppose  that  all 
that  laboring  men  now  ask  for  were  granted  ; 
that  would  not  permanently  settle  the  labor 
question.  It  is  not  a  question  involving  merely 
hours  and  wages. 


24  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XL 

As  in  the  case  of  the  slavery  question,  no 
compromise  could  settle  it,  nothing  but  free- 
dom could  settle  it ;  so  it  is  with  the  labor 
question,  —  nothing  but  a  higher  state  of 
existence  for  the  subject  of  the  controversy 
can  settle  the  labor  question.  There  will  be 
strikes  and  there  will  be  boycotts,  and  there 
will  be  arbitration,  and  there  will  be  a  thou- 
sand schemes ;  but  there  is  only  one  thing 
that  can  permanently  settle  the  labor  ques- 
tion, and  that  is  the  individual  improvement 
and  elevation  of  the  man  who  has  to  labor 
with  his  hands. 

There  is  a  very  simple  way  which  would 
help  us  out  of  our  present  troubles  and  smooth 
the  road  for  those  who  are  to  come  after  us. 
It  is  a  simple  way,  but  for  all  that  it  would  be 
a  revolution.  To  a  man  who  has  been  ill  for 
years,  good  health  is  a  revolution.  Of  that 
sort  would  be  this  revolution.  It  would  be 
a  revolution  much  greater  than  any  hitherto 
known ;  but  it  would  be  a  peaceful  Anglo- 
Saxon  revolution.  While  the  revolution  was 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  2$ 

going  on,  everybody  would  go  about  his  busi- 
ness. There  would  be  no  lawlessness,  no 
destruction  of  property,  nobody  would  be 
maimed,  nobody  would  be  wounded,  nobody 
would  be  killed. 


26  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XII. 

There  was  graduated,  June,  1886,  at  the 
Manual  Training  School  at  the  corner  of 
Twelfth  Street  and  Michigan  Avenue,  Chica- 
go, a  class  of  boys  who  are  an  entirely  new 
product  in  the  world.  They  were  boys  about 
eighteen  years  of  age,  who  three  years  before 
had  never  touched  tools  with  a  view  to  be- 
coming skilled  in  their  use.  These  boys 
had  drawn  the  plans  for  several  steam-en- 
gines. They  had  drawn  the  patterns  on  pa- 
per. They  had  made  the  patterns  in  wood. 
They  had  been  forced  to  have  the  castings 
done  by  other  hands,  because  there  were  then 
in  the  school  no  facilities  for  making  castings. 
They  would  have  made  the  castings  if  there 
had  been  facilities  for  doing  so.  The  boys 
had  done  the  chipping  and  the  filing  and  the 
lathe-work.  They  had  put  together  their  en- 
gines. At  the  word  of  command  steam  was 
turned  on,  and  the  engines  began  to  run. 
One  of  the  engines  made  by  the  boys  is  now 
running  every  day  in  the  school. 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  27 

These  boys  had  not  neglected  their  books. 
They  were  ready  to  stand  up  and  be  exam- 
ined side  by  side  with  boys  who  in  the  ordi- 
nary high  school  had  devoted  all  their  time  to 
books. 


28  HIGHER   GROUND, 


XIII. 

The  manual  training  school  is  not  a  con- 
trivance for  making  more  mechanics.  It  is  a 
contrivance  for  developing  individual  power. 
The  education  of  the  manual  training  school 
is  just  as  serviceable  for  the  scholars  who  are 
not  to  be  mechanics  as  it  is  for  those  who  are 
to  be  mechanics.  It  is  just  as  serviceable 
for  the  boy  who  is  to  be  a  lawyer,  physician, 
dentist,  or  what  not,  as  for  the  boy  who  is  to 
make  shoes.  The  education  of  the  training 
school  is  in  the  direction  of  the  polytechnic 
school  of  the  present  time.  Having  the  men- 
tal training  of  a  graduate  of  a  high  school, 
the  graduate  of  a  manual  training  school  will 
not  compete  with  the  average  wage-worker, 
because  he  will  be  able  to  do  very  much  bet- 
ter for  himself.  As  things  are  now,  the  aver- 
age graduate  of  a  manual  training  school  will 
earn  at  twenty-one  years  of  age  $750  a  year  ; 
and  that  keeps  him  away  above  competing 
with  the  average  wage-worker.  The  wage- 
workers  used  to  think  that  they  must  save 
themselves  from  competition  by  prohibiting 
apprentices  from  learning  trades.  By  letting 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  29 

the  apprentices  learn  so  much  more  than  the 
wage-workers  know,  the  same  object  is  ef- 
fected. The  man  who  earns  $1.50  a  day 
strikes  periodically  because  he  is  constantly 
underbid  in  the  market.  The  market  is 
crowded  with  $1.50  men.  The  man  who  has 
from  three  to  five  dollars  a  day  rarely  strikes, 
because  he  has  things  more  his  own  way. 
There  are  fewer  of  his  kind.  Instead  of  his 
being  obliged  to  hunt  for  a  place  the  place 
hunts  for  him.  The  manual  training  school 
raises  a  boy  above  the  competition  of  the 
masses  of  men. 


30  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XIV. 

Manual  training  is  now  being  introduced 
in  the  public  schools  of  Chicago,  and  manual 
training  schools  are  springing  up  all  over  the 
land.  The  people  no  sooner  see  manual  train- 
ing than  they  want  it  for  their  children.  If 
all  the  children  of  the  United  States  could 
have  the  manual  training  school  education, 
they  would  be  raised  to  a  grade  where  there 
is  no  labor  question.  There  is  always  plenty 
of  room  higher  up. 

The  first  step  towards  a  remedy  for  the  poor 
condition  of  the  world's  hand-workers  lies  in 
raising  the  grade  of  their  intelligence,  the 
grade  of  their  skill,  the  grade  of  their  work, 
and  as  a  consequence  the  grade  of  their  ability 
and  power  to  earn  money.  The  first  step  to- 
wards a  remedy  for  the  poor  condition  of  the 
world's  hand-workers  lies  in  training  their 
brains  together  with  their  hands,  and  letting 
the  product  of  their  labor  be  the  product  both 
of  skilled  hands  and  of  trained  brains.  The 
first  step  lies  in  increasing  the  earning  ca- 
pacity of  the  individual. 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION,  31 

At  the  present  time,  for  the  children  of 
laboring  people  after  they  are  ten  or  twelve 
years  old,  school  facilities  such  as  now  exist 
are  only  a  hollow  mockery.  There  is  no 
earthly  use  in  additional  school  facilities  un- 
less the  children  are  supplied  with  the  means 
of  availing  themselves  of  those  facilities.  The 
necessity  is  upon  the  children  to  earn  their 
livelihood ;  and  of  what  use  are  school  facili- 
ties to  children  who  must  work  for  their  daily 
bread  from  early  morn  till  dewy  eve  ? 


HIGHER  GROUND. 


XV. 


My  proposition  is  that  the  manual  training 
school  shall  be  made  a  part  of  the  American 
public  school  system,  as  it  already  is  in  Chi- 
cago, Toledo,  Philadelphia,  and  other  places, 
and  that  to  enable  all  children  to  get  the 
benefit  of  the  school,  parents  or  guardians 
shall  be  paid  for  keeping  the  children  at 
school  throughout  the  public  course,  includ- 
ing the  high  school  or  manual  training  school. 
The  compensation  should  begin  at  the  child's 
twelfth  and  continue  till  his  twentieth  year. 

ist  year $50 


2d 

.                                                   75 

^d 

4th 

,                                                       12? 

5th 

6th 

I7C 

7th 

22? 

8th 

300 

The  proposition  includes  boys  and  girls. 
In  Toledo  and  Philadelphia,  where  manual 
training  has  been  introduced  into  the  public 
schools,  experiments  are  being  made  which 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  33 

will  eventually  make  the  manual  training  as 
serviceable  for  girls  as  it  already  is  for  boys. 
In  Philadelphia  and  Toledo  girls  are  being 
taught  cooking,  sewing,  and  many  of  the 
household  arts.1 

1  See  Appendix,  II. 


34  HIGHER   GROUND, 


XVI. 

The  expense  would  be  enormous,  of  course. 
The  remedy  is  an  extraordinary  one,  and  ex- 
traordinary means  would  have  to  be  resorted 
to  to  carry  it  into  effect.  The  expense  could 
not  be  met  by  any  taxation  in  vogue  at  pres- 
ent, but  it  could  be  met  by  a  graduated  suc- 
cession tax  upon  estates.  To  collect  such  a 
tax  would  cost  nothing  of  any  consequence, 
because  no  new  officers  would  be  needed  to 
levy  or  collect  it.  In  war  times  we  had 
a  succession  tax,  and  it  never  failed  to  be 
collected  ;  simply  because  the  probate  judge 
could  declare  no  estate  settled  until  the  tax 
had  been  paid.  The  tax,  until  paid,  was  a 
lien  upon  all  the  property  of  the  estate.  The 
tax  could  not  be  avoided.  It  never  failed  to  be 
paid.  It  was  upon  personal  property  only,  — 
&%t  ll/2,  3,  4,  and  5%,  depending  upon  the 
relationship  of  the  party  inheriting  to  the  de- 
ceased. The  law  was  passed  by  Congress  in 
1861,  amended  in  1862,  and  both  acts  were 
signed  by  Abraham  Lincoln  as  President. 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  35 

They  will   be   found    in    the    United    States 
Statutes  at  Large,  Vol.  XII.,  page  485. 

"SECT.  1 1 1. 'And  be  it  further  enacted,  That 
any  person  or  persons  having  in  charge  or  trust,  as 
administrators,  executors,  or  trustees  of  any  lega- 
cies or  distributive  shares  arising  from  personal 
property  of  any  kind  whatsoever,  where  the  whole 
amount  of  such  personal  property  as  aforesaid 
shall  exceed  the  sum  of  $1,000  in  actual  value, 
passing  from  any  person  who  may  die  after  the 
passage  of  this  act,  possessed  of  such  property 
either  by  will  or  by  the  intestate  laws  of  any  State 
or  Territory,  or  any  part  of  such  property  or  in- 
terest therein,  transferred  by  deed,  grant,  bargain, 
sale,  or  gift  made  or  intended  to  take  effect  in 
possession  or  enjoyment  after  the  death  of  the 
grantor  or  bargainor,  to  any  person  or  persons  or 
to  any  body  or  bodies  politic  or  corporate,  in  trust 
or  otherwise,  shall  be  and  hereby  are,  made  sub- 
ject to  a  duty  or  tax,  to  be  paid  to  United  States, 
as  follows,  that  is  to  say  :  — 

i.  Where  the  person  or  persons  entitled  to  any 
beneficial  interest  in  such  property  shall  be  the 
lineal  issue  or  lineal  ancestor,  brother  or  sister, 
to  the  person  who  died  possessed  of  such  prop- 
erty, as  aforesaid,  at  and  after  the  rate  of  sev- 
enty five  cents  for  each  and  every  hundred 
dollars  of  the  clear  value  of  such  interest  in  such 
property. 


36  HIGHER    GROUND. 

2.  Where  the  person  or  persons  entitled  to  any 
beneficial  interest   in  such  property  shall   be   a 
descendant  of  a  brother  or  sister  of  the  person 
who  died  possessed  as  aforesaid,  at  and  after  the 
rate  of  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  for  each  and 
every  hundred  dollars  of  the  clear  value  of  such 
interest. 

3.  Where  the  person  or  persons  entitled  to  any 
beneficial   interest   in  such  property  shall   be  a 
brother  or  sister  of  the  father  or  mother,  or  a 
descendant  of  the  brother  or  sister  of  the  father 
or  mother  of  the  person  who  died  possessed  as 
aforesaid,  at  and  after  the  rate  of  three  dollars  for 
each  and  every  hundred  dollars  of  the  clear  value 
of  such  interest. 

4.  Where  the  person  or  persons  entitled  to  any 
beneficial  interest   in  such   property  shall   be  a 
brother  or  sister   of  the   grandfather   or   grand- 
mother, or  a  descendant  of  the  brother  or  sister 
of  the  grandfather  or  grandmother  of  the  person 
who  died  possessed  as  aforesaid,  at  and  after  the 
rate  of  four  dollars  for  each  and  every  hundred 
dollars  of  the  clear  value  of  such  interest. 

5.  Where  the   person    or   persons   entitled   to 
any  beneficial  interest  in  such  property  shall  be 
in  any  other  degree  of  collateral  consanguinity 
than  is  hereinbefore  stated,  or  shall  be  a  stranger 
in  blood  to  the   person  who  died  possessed,  as 
aforesaid,  or  shall  be  a  body  politic  or  corporate, 
at  and  after  the  rate  of  five  dollars  for  each  and 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  37 

every  hundred  dollars  of  the  clear  value  of  such 
interest.  Provided :  That  all  legacies  or  property 
passing  by  will  or  by  the  laws  of  any  State  or 
Territory  to  husband  or  wife  of  the  person  who 
died  possessed,  as  aforesaid,  shall  be  exempt 
from  tax  or  duty." 


38  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XVII. 

In  war  times  we  had  a  graduated  income 
tax,  so  that  a  graduated  tax  is  not  new  to  the 
American  people.  The  succession  tax  and 
the  graduated  tax  are  not  going  to  upset  the 
country.  They  are  both  things  that  have 
already  been.  The  principle  that  a  large  ac- 
cumulation should  pay  at  a  higher  rate  than 
a  small  accumulation  was  established  in  war 
times.  The  income  tax  was  — 

5%  on  all  incomes  over  $600  and  under  $5,000 
^y^%    "  "  "      5,000   "        "      10,000 

10%     "  "  "    10,000 

The  law  was  passed  in  1864,  and  signed  by 
Abraham  Lincoln  as  President.  It  may  be 
found  in  the  United  States  Statutes  at  Large, 
Vol.  XIII.,  page  281. 

"SECT.  116.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That 
there  shall  be  levied,  collected  and  paid  annually 
upon  the  annual  gains,  profits  or  income  of 
every  person  residing  in  the  United  States,  or 
of  any  citizen  of  the  United  States  residing 
abroad,  whether  derived  from  any  kind  of  prop- 
erty, rents,  interests,  dividends,  salaries,  or  from 
any  profession,  trade,  employment,  or  vocation, 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  39 

carried  on  in  the  United  States  or  elsewhere,  or 
from  any  other  source  whatever,  except  as  herein- 
after mentioned,  if  such  annual  gains,  profits,  or 
income,  exceed  the  sum  of  six  hundred  dollars, 
a  duty  of  five  per  centum  on  the  excess  over  six 
hundred  dollars  and  not  exceeding  five  thousand 
dollars  ;  and  a  duty  of  seven  and  one  half  of  one 
per  centum  per  annum  on  the  excess  over  five 
thousand  dollars  and  not  exceeding  ten  thousand 
dollars  ;  and  a  duty  of  ten  per  centum  on  the 
excess  over  ten  thousand  dollars." 

The  income  tax  was,  to  be  sure,  levied  in 
war  times  and  under  the  exigencies  of  war 
times.  The  tax  which  I  propose  is  to  pre- 
vent war  times.  "  Let  us  have  peace."  The 
income  tax  was  odious  because  the  scrupu- 
lous paid,  and  the  unscrupulous  escaped  by 
swearing  falsely.  A  succession  tax  is  a  fair 
method  of  taxation  because  nobody  can  es- 
cape paying  it.  All  must  pay,  and  all  must  pay 
alike  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  estate. 

The  State  of  New  York  has  a  graduated 
succession  tax  passed  by  the  Legislature  of 
New  York,  June  10,  1885.  It  may  be  found 
in  the  Laws  of  New  York,  1885,  io8th  Ses- 
sion, Chapter  483,  page  820,  and  is  entitled 
"  An  Act  to  tax  gifts,  legacies,  and  collateral 
inheritances  in  certain  cases." 


40  HIGHER   GROUND. 

"  SECT.  i.  After  the  passage  of  this  act,  all  prop- 
erty which  shall  pass  by  will  or  by  the  intestate 
laws  of  this  State  from  any  person  who  may  die 
seized  or  possessed  of  the  same  while  being  a 
resident  of  the  State,  or  which  property  shall  be 
within  this  State,  or  any  part  of  such  property,  or 
any  interest  therein,  or  income  therefrom,  trans- 
ferred by  deed,  grant,  sale  or  gift,  made  or  in- 
tended to  take  effect  in  possession  or  enjoyment 
after  the  death  of  the  grantor  or  bargainer,  to  any 
person  or  persons,  or  to  a  body  politic  or  corpor- 
ate, in  trust  or  otherwise,  or  by  reason  whereof 
any  person,  or  body  politic  or  corporate  shall 
become  beneficially  entitled,  in  possession  or 
expectancy,  to  any  property,  or  to  the  income 
thereof,  other  than  to  or  for  the  use  of  father, 
mother,  husband,  wife,  children,  brother  and  sis- 
ter and  lineal  descendants  born  in  lawful  wed- 
lock, and  the  wife  or  widow  of  a  son  and  the 
husband  of  a  daughter,  and  the  societies,  corpora- 
tions and  institutions  now  exempted  by  law  from 
taxation,  shall  be  and  is  subject  to  a  tax  of  five 
dollars  on  every  hundred  dollars  of  the  clear 
market  value  of  such  property,  and  at  and  after 
the  same  rate  for  any  less  amount,  to  be  paid  to 
the  treasurer  of  the  proper  county,  and  in  the 
city  and  county  of  New  York  to  the  Comptroller 
thereof,  for  the  use  of  the  State,  and  all  adminis- 
trators, executors  and  trustees  shall  be  liable  for 
any  and  all  such  taxes,  until  the  same  shall  have 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  41 

been  paid,  as  hereinafter  directed.  Provided : 
That  an  estate  which  may  be  valued  at  a  less  sum 
than  five  hundred  dollars  shall  not  be  subject  to 
said  duty  or  tax."  1 

This  law  establishes  a  succession  tax,  so 
far  as  it  goes,  and  it  establishes  a  graduated 
succession  tax  because  a  very  small  estate  is 
exempt  while  a  larger  one  is  taxed. 

1  See  Appendix,  III. 


42  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XVIII. 

The  tax  which  I  propose  would  be  gradu- 
ated, —  small  on  small  amounts,  and  larger  as 
the  amounts  increase. 

]^%  on  all  estates  less  than  $25,000 

y2°]0  on  all  estates  above  $25,000  and  less  than  $50,000 

34"%      "          "           "  50,000  "  "  100,000 

i%      "          "           "  100,000  "  "  200,000 

2%      "          "           "  200,000  "  "  300,000 

3%      "           "           "  300,000  "  "  400,000 

4%      "          "           "  400,000  "  "  500,000 

5%     "          "          "  500,000  "  "  600,000 

6%     "          "          "  600,000  "  "  700,000 

7%      "          "           "  700,000  "  "  800,000 

8%     "          "           "  800,000  "  "  900,000 

9%     "          "           "  900,000  "  "  1,000,000 

Ten  per  cent  above  a  million  ;  one  per  cent 
additional  for  each  additional  hundred  thou- 
sand, up  to  fifty  per  cent  on  five  millions  or 
any  sum  above  five  millions. 

This  tax  would  not  and  could  not  fall  heav- 
ily upon  anybody,  because  where  there  was 
no  estate  there  would  be  no  tax.  It  would 
not  annoy  the  man  of  business  struggling 
with  difficulties,  because  it  would  not  be  lev- 
ied upon  business,  but  only  upon  accumula- 
tions actually  left  at  death.  If  the  estate  were 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  43 

small  it  would  be  a  very  small  tax,  at  a  very 
small  rate.  If  the  estate  were  large  the  estate 
would  pay  a  large  tax,  at  a  rate  high  in  pro- 
portion to  its  size.  If  there  were  no  accu- 
mulations there  would  be  no  tax. 


44  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XIX. 

I  will  not  here  go  into  wearisome  details. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that  the  proceeds  of  the 
tax  would  cover  the  proposed  expenditure. 
The  tax  would  be  sufficient  for  the  proposed 
education,  but  no  more  than  sufficient.  The 
tax  would  probably,  at  the  rates  named,  be 
equal  to  the  expense  of  the  education  ;  and 
the  expense  of  the  education  would  prob- 
ably be  equal  to  the  proceeds  of  the  tax. 
The  tax  would  at  present  yield  from  three  to 
six  millions  annually  in  Chicago,  and  from 
twenty-five  to  fifty  millions  annually  in  New 
York  City. 

But  can  this  state  of  things  be  brought 
about  ?  Have  the  people  the  right  to  make 
such  laws  ?  The  people  can  make  whatever 
laws  they  like ;  and  when  made,  laws  must 
be  obeyed  by  all.  The  only  question  is, 
Would  such  a  law  be  expedient  ?  Would 
such  a  law  be  for  the  general  good  of  all 
the  people  ? 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION'.  45 


XX. 

In  addition  to  the  succession  tax  which  I 
propose  it  would  be  greatly  for  the  interest  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States  to  establish 
some  of  the  rules  of  inheritance  of  the  Code 
Napoleon,  under  which  the  immense  subdivi- 
sion of  estates  in  France  has  taken  place.  It 
is  the  law  in  France  that  if  a  man  has  one 
child  that  child  takes  by  law  one  half  of  the 
father's  estate.  The  father  can  dispose  other- 
wise, as  he  likes,  of  the  other  half,  but  he  can 
dispose  of  no  more  than  one  half.  The  father 
can  dispose  only  of  what  would  be  the  share 
of  one  child.  If  he  has  two  children  he  can 
dispose  of  one  third  of  his  estate,  if  three 
children  of  one  fourth,  if  four  children  of  one 
fifth,  and  so  on.  The  children  have  their 
remedy  at  law  to  recover  their  portion  of  their 
father's  estate.  There  are  very  few  wills  made 
in  France,  because  the  law  disposes  so  wisely 
of  estates  and  leaves  people  so  little  liberty 
in  willing  away  their  property.  There  is 
rarely  in  France  a  contest  over  a  will;  the  law 
disposes  of  the  property,  and  it  goes  to  the 
children,  and  not,  as  so  often  in  this  country, 


46  HIGHER  GROUND. 

to  the  lawyers.  If  this  wise  law  had  been 
in  force  in  this  country,  the  Vanderbilt  and 
Astor  estates  could  never  have  become  what 
they  are ;  and  if  this  were  now  the  law  the 
Vanderbilt,  Astor,  and  Gould  fortunes  must 
soon  be  scattered  among  many  heirs,  instead 
of  being  held  together  as  a  menace  to  the 
business  interests  and  liberties  of  this  people.1 

1  See  Appendix,  IV. 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  47 


XXI. 

The  purpose  being  fully  understood,  I  be- 
lieve that  the  people  would  gladly  vote  the 
succession  tax.  The  moderately  well-to-do 
would  gladly  favor  it  in  view  of  its  applica- 
tion, because  it  would  be  so  obviously  for 
their  advantage.  Upon  an  estate  of  $1,000 
the  tax  would  be  only  $2.50.  Upon  an  estate 
of  less  than  $25,000  the  tax  could  not  exceed 
$62.50.  Upon  an  estate  of  less  than  $50,000 
the  tax  could  not  exceed  $250.  Upon  an 
estate  of  less  than  $75,000  the  tax  could  not 
exceed  $562.50.  Upon  an  estate  of  $100,000 
the  tax  would  be  $1,000.  Upon  an  estate  of 
$199,000  the  tax  would  be  $1,900.  Upon  an 
estate  of  $299,000  the  'tax  would  be  $5,980. 
Upon  an  estate  of  $399,000  the  tax  would 
be  $11,970.  Upon  an  estate  of  $499,000  the 
tax  would  be  $19,960.  Upon  an  estate  of 
$1,000,000  the  tax  would  be  $100,000.  Upon 
an  estate  of  $2,000,000  the  tax  would  be 
$400,000.  Upon  an  estate  of  $3,000,000, 
$900,000.  Upon  $4,000,000,  $1,600,000;  and 
upon  an  estate  of  $5,000,000  and  upwards, 
the  tax  would  be  one  half  of  the  estate.  The 


48  HIGHER   GROUND. 

larger  the  estate,  the  more  easily  could  the 
tax  be  borne.  In  the  nature  of  things  the 
tax  could  never  fall  heavily  upon  anybody, 
because  the  tax  would  be  in  proportion  to  the 
size  of  the  estate,  and  where  there  was  no 
estate  there  would  be  no  tax. 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  49 


XXII. 

Without  wealth  there  can  be  no  intelli- 
gence. The  wealth  of  a  country  must  pro- 
duce the  intelligence  of  that  country,  or  there 
will  be  no  intelligence.  This  country  cannot 
peaceably  get  along  with  the  intelligence  we 
now  have.  The  best  proof  of  that  is  that  we 
are  not  getting  along  peaceably.  No  matter 
in  whose  hands  the  wealth  is,  intelligence  suf- 
ficient to  enable  us  to  live  in  peace  must  be 
paid  for  and  produced.  With  the  means  at 
hand  to  prevent  it,  we  cannot  afford  to  let  our 
institutions  succumb  to  chaos  and  anarchy. 
That  in  this  land  of  liberty  children  should 
be  foredoomed  to  starvation,  to  vice,  and  to 
crime,  as  they  are  in  lands  of  despotism, 
would  make  of  liberty  a  delusion  and  a  snare, 
and  would  make  us  all  feel  that  the  less  we 
said  about  liberty  the  better.  That  is  not 
what  is  in  store  for  the  children  who  are  to 
be  born  in  poverty  on  this  generous  Ameri- 
can soil.  The  question  is  not  what  the  few 
would  like.  The  question  is  what  is  for  the 
interest  of  the  many.  The  welfare  of  the 
people  is  the  supreme  law.  The  welfare  of 

4 


50  HIGHER   GROUND. 

the  people  is  above  everything  else.  All  pri- 
vate considerations  have  to  yield  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  people.  Unless  the  wealth  of  the 
country  shall  in  the  manner  proposed,  or  in 
some  similar  manner,  be  made  to  respond  to 
the  educational  needs  of  the  country,  all  the 
beggarliness,  degradation,  and  hopelessness  of 
European  life  will  be  upon  us. 

Except  for  purposes  of  power  and  display, 
it  makes  no  difference  whatever  whether  a 
family  has  five  millions  or  ten  millions  of 
money.  Five  millions  will  give  them  every- 
thing they  can  use,  just  as  well  as  ten  millions. 
Money  which  enables  people  to  dispense  with 
care,  forethought,  and  labor,  is  a  curse  rather 
than  a  blessing.  It  may  be  safely  asserted 
that  more  young  people  are  rendered  worth- 
less and  ruined  than  are  benefited  by  large 
inheritances. 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION'.  51 


XXIII. 

What  is  called  society  in  this  country  imi- 
tates to  the  extent  of  its  ability  English  so- 
ciety, and  high  English  society  gives  every 
evidence  of  being  the  most  corrupt  institution 
on  the  earth.  Contrary  to  the  general  opin- 
ion, high  society  in  France,  because  it  is  com- 
paratively poor,  is  sweet  and  pure  compared 
to  society  in  England.  English  society  is  ac- 
cessible to  everybody  who  has  a  long  purse. 
English  society  is  a  wonderful  illustration  of 
the  mischief  that  Satan  finds  for  idle  hands 
to  do.  In  England,  the  higher  you  get  so- 
cially the  lower  you  get  morally  ;  and  that  is 
the  condition  of  things  which  great  fortunes 
tend  to  introduce  into  this  country. 

Horace  Greeley  was  more  than  half  right 
in  saying  that  a  man  wortrTmore  than  a  mil- 
lion is  a  nuisance.  Money  in  superabundance 
only  enables  the  possessor  to  lead  a  life  of 
self-indulgence.  That  a  class  of  habitual  do- 
nothings  should  grow  up  here,  to  poison  life 
for  the  workers,  flies  in  the  face  of  all  Ameri- 
can tradition  and  aspiration.  It  is  good  public 
policy  for  the  law  to  step  in  and  prevent  it, 


52  HIGHER   GROUND. 

as  it  is  for  the  law  to  step  in  and  prevent  the 
establishment  of  any  other  public  nuisance. 

The  law  of  inheritance  of  the  Code  Napo- 
leon, which  has  now  been  the  law  of  France 
nearly  a  hundred  years,  coupled  with  the  suc- 
cession tax  which  I  propose,  would  imme- 
diately put  an  end  to  all  excessively  large 
fortunes  in  this  country. 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  53 


XXIV. 

If  the  law  in  New  York  were  now  what  I 
propose,  the  William  H.  Vanderbilt  estate 
would  furnish  over  a  hundred  millions  of  dol- 
lars for  the  education  of  the  people.  Had 
this  been  the  law  of  New  York  in  1875,  the 
estate  of  Commodore  Vanderbilt  would  at 
that  time  have  furnished  for  education  from 
thirty  to  fifty  millions.  And  if  that  amount 
of  money  had  been  taken  from  Commodore 
Vanderbilt's  estate  in  1875,  the  present  Van- 
derbilt fortune  would  have  been  impossible. 
If,  then,  the  rest  of  the  fortune  had  been  di- 
vided among  all  of  Commodore  Vanderbilt's 
children,  share  and  share  alike,  instead  of  be- 
ing given  substantially  all  to  William  H. 
Vanderbilt  alone,  all  the  cornering  of  things 
that  has  been  done  all  these  years  by  means 
of  the  Vanderbilt  fortune  would  have  been 
impossible. 

Not  a  man,  woman,  or  child  of  the  name  of 
Vanderbilt  would  have  been  in  the  slightest 
degree  any  the  less  comfortable  if  the  tax  had 
been  collected,  and  the  Vanderbilt  fortune 
equally  divided  among  the  Commodore's  chil- 


54  HIGHER   GROUND. 

dren.  We  are  apt  to  think  that  only  poverty 
is  brutalizing.  Excessive  wealth  appears  to 
be  equally  so.  Nothing  short  of  so  much 
money  could  have  caused  old  Commodore 
Vanderbilt  to  cut  off  all  his  children  but 
one,  without  their  having  given  him  the 
slightest  cause  for  it.  If  the  Commodore's 
money  had  been  evenly  distributed  among 
his  children  after  paying  the  tax  I  propose, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  happiness  of 
the  Vanderbilt  family  would  have  been  far 
greater  than  it  has  been. 

Would  this  tax  be  unjust  to  the  Vander- 
bilts  ?  The  Vanderbilt  estate  is  one  of  the 
many  vast  accumulations  earned  by  steam. 
Without  steam  the  accumulation  would  not 
have  been  possible.  The  Vanderbilts  did  not 
invent  steam.  The  Vanderbilt  estate  is  one 
of  the  vast  accumulations  gotten  together  at 
the  expense  of  the  people  by  stock-watering. 
The  Vanderbilt  estate  was  never  fairly  earned, 
as  a  man  earns  money  in  legitimate  business. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  among  the  fortunes  run- 
ning up  into  the  many  millions  there  is  not 
one  in  twenty  that  is  honestly  earned  in  le- 
gitimate business.  The  Vanderbilt  money  is 
tainted.  The  immense  pile  is  the  result  of 
some  honest  industry,  and  of  a  vast  deal  of 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  55 

legislative,  judicial,  and  every  other  form 
of  corruption  and  imposition  on  the  people. 
But  if  this  tax  would  be  unjust  to  the  Van- 
derbilts,  would  it  be  as  brutally  unjust  as  it 
was  for  Commodore  Vanderbilt  to  deprive 
nearly  all  his  children  of  any  substantial 
share  in  his  estate  ?  There  would  be  no 
injustice  to  the  Vanderbilts  in  the  succes- 
sion tax.  Had  the  law  as  I  propose  it  existed 
at  the  time,  it  would  have  done  that  justice  to 
Commodore  Vanderbilt's  children  which  he 
himself  did  not  choose  to  do. 


56  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXV. 

Would  this  measure  be  just  to  all  ?  Gov- 
ernment is  not  a  matter  of  absolute  justice. 
Government  at  best  is  only  a  matter  of  expe- 
diency. This  measure  is  expedient.  It  would 
produce  no  unhappiness,  and  it  would  produce 
an  immense  deal  of  happiness.  That  part  of 
the  earth  which  we  inhabit  would  become  less 
and  less  of  a  vale  of  tears  with  each  year. 
With  the  very  rich  people  there  would  not  at 
any  rate  be  any  question  of  suffering.  They 
would  still  be  very  comfortable  and  happy 
after  paying  a  succession  tax.  They  would 
be  much  happier  paying  fifty  per  cent  than 
if  the  amount  inherited  were  so  small  that  the 
rate  would  be  only  one  per  cent.  There  is 
no  question  of  justice  involved  at  all.  There 
is  involved  in  the  whole  matter  only  a  ques- 
tion of  expediency.  But  let  us  admit  for  the 
sake  of  argument  that  there  is  a  question  of 
justice.  Let  us  admit  for  the  sake  of  argu- 
ment that  it  would  be  unjust  towards  men 
who  are  now  many  times  millionnaires,  to 


THE  LABOR    QUESTION.  57 

enact,  to  take  effect  immediately,  the  law 
which  would  upon  their  death  take  for  pub- 
lic uses  from  ten  to  fifty  per  cent  of  their 
estates.  Then  let  us  suppose  the  law  to 
be  enacted  so  that  the  rate  of  tax  over  and 
above  ten  per  cent  should  take  effect  not  till 
the  year  1925,  leaving  all  our  very  rich  men 
forty  years  in  which  to  die  and  thus  have 
their  property  escape  the  tax.  Until  1925, 
then,  the  man  of  fifty  millions  would  pay  only 
at  the  same  rate  as  the  man  of  one  million. 
That  would  apparently  be  unjust  too ;  but  it 
is  all  a  matter  not  of  justice  but  of  expedi- 
ency. But  surely,  after  1925,  the  law  having 
been  established  many  years  and  great  wealth 
having  been  acquired  under  it  and  subject  to 
it,  nobody  could  then  complain  with  any  de- 
gree of  fairness. 

To  suit  the  notions  of  those  who  always 
desire  the  welfare  of  mankind  to  be  post- 
poned' to  a  more  convenient  season,  the  whole 
law  might  be  enacted  to  take  effect  after  we 
shall  all  be  dead  and  gone,  and  then,  maybe, 
its  enactment  would  be  less  difficult.  The 
importation  of  negroes  as  slaves  was  abol- 
ished in  this  way,  to  take  effect  in  1808,  by 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  adopted 
in  1787,  leaving  twenty-one  years  more  time 


58  HIGHER   GROUND. 

wherein  to  increase  the  evil  which  was  to 
give  us  four  years  of  war.  I  would  rather 
have  the  law  which  I  propose  take  effect  forty 
years  hence  than  not  to  have  it  at  all,  but  if 
it  were  well  done  't  were  well  't  were  done 
quickly. 

I  put  this  measure  upon  the  ground  of  ex- 
pediency, but  I  believe.it  to  be  pre-eminently 
just.  I  believe  it  to  be  a  measure  which 
would  increase  in  this  country  the  tendency 
of  things  to  "  make  for  righteousness."  With 
a  population  so  intelligent  and  efficient  as  it 
would  produce,  the  reform  of  the  civil  service 
would  become  an  easy  matter.  There  would 
be  less  intemperance.  Good  tendencies  of  in- 
dividuals are  strengthened  by  thorough  train- 
ing of  mind  and  body,  and  evil  ones  are 
diminished  by  the  same  means.  Besides,  in- 
temperance is  often  the  result  of  helplessness 
and  hopelessness, — of  seeing  no  way  out. 
With  individual  power  to  achieve  things  come 
hope  and  strength,  and  with  hope  and  strength 
and  faith  in  the  future  come  temperance  and 
a  firmer  character  all  around.  Women  with 
their  own  way  to  make  in  the  world  would 
find  themselves  better  fitted  for  the  work  of 
the  world.  With  ability  to  do  many  things, 
they  would  more  easily  find  the  one  thing 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  59 

to  do,  and  therefore  they  would  find  the 
world's  roads  easier.  All  reforms  and  im- 
provements, all  good  causes,  would  be  helped 
by  this  measure.  It  is  broader  than  any  and 
all  of  them. 


60  HIGHER    GROUND. 


XXVI. 

The  very  rich  man  would  say  that  he  should 
be  permitted  to  do  what  he  likes  with  his  own. 
That  he  cannot  do  even  now.  The  law  inter- 
feres with  him  at  every  step  and  tells  him 
what  he  may  do  with  his  own  and  what  he 
must  not  do.  The  test  of  what  a  man  may 
do  with  his  own  is  that  what  he  does  must 
not  be  contrary  to  public  policy ;  what  he 
does  must  not  be  contrary  to  the  welfare  of 
the  people.  People  used  to  entail  their  prop- 
erty so  as  to  have  it  descend  to  the  first-born 
male.  That  was  once  the  case  with  landed 
property  in  this  country,  and  it  is  still  the  case 
in  England.  We  have  done  away  with  entails 
and  primogeniture  on  the  ground  that  they 
are  contrary  to  public  policy.  Public  policy 
decides  what  a  man  may  do  with  his  property  ; 
and  to  say  nothing  of  the  object  for  which  this 
money  is  sorely  needed,  fortunes  running  up 
into  the  hundreds  of  millions  of  money  are 
contrary  to  public  policy  if  ever  there  was 
anything  contrary  to  public  policy. 

The  very  rich  people  would  object  both  to 
the  succession  tax  and  to  rules  of  inheritance 


LABOR   QUESTION.  6 1 

which  would  prevent  what  has  been  done  in 
the  Vanderbilt  and  Astor  estates  ;  but  the 
very  rich  people,  like  the  rest  of  us,  live  in  a 
country  of  majority  rule,  and  for  the  general 
good  we  all  have  to  submit  to  things  that  we 
do  not  like ;  and  the  very  rich  people  must  not 
stand  in  the  way  of  the  general  good. 


62  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXVII. 

Nearly  all  rich  men,  at  least  nearly  all  those 
whose  estates  do  not  run  up  into  the  many 
millions,  do  as  much  for  benevolent  objects  as 
the  proposed  succession  tax  would  take  from 
their  estates.  It  may  be  said  to  be  a  custom 
in  the  United  States  for  people  of  large  means 
to  bequeath  money  for  benevolent  objects ;  and 
as  wealth  increases  the  custom  is  more  and 
more  observed.  Nowhere  else  on  earth  do 
people  of  wealth  give  away  money  as  freely 
as  they  do  here.  In  the  city  of  Chicago  alone 
there  are  at  this  very  moment  bequests  not 
yet  carried  into  effect  amounting  to  at  least 
five  millions  of  dollars.  Washington  De  Pauw 
of  Evansville,  Indiana,  died  recently,  bequeath- 
ing $1,250,000  to  the  De  Pauw  University  of 
Greencastle,  Indiana.  This  bequest  is  in  ad- 
dition to  large  sums  previously  given  by  him 
to  the  same  institution,  by  reason  whereof 
the  University  had  changed  its  name  from 
Asbury  to  De  Pauw.1  But  in  carrying  out 
their  benevolent  ideas  people  of  wealth  rarely 
act  with  much  wisdom,  and  rarely  in  such  a 

1  See  Appendix,  V. 


THE  LABOR   QUESTJON.  63 

manner  as  to  accomplish  much  good.  They 
cause  to  be  erected  and  established  libraries 
where  there  are  no  readers,  and  colleges  where 
there  are  no  students.  Well-meaning  and 
benevolent  rich  men  have  endowed  and  estab- 
lished, at  the  South,  innumerable  so-called 
colleges  where  young  colored  people  are  wast- 
ing their  time  and  strength  in  learning  Latin 
and  Greek !  How  could  anything  be  more 
absurd  ?  These  things  are  not  to  be  won- 
dered at.  Men  who  know  how  to  accumulate 
large  sums  generally  have  their  thoughts  fully 
occupied  with  business,  and  have  but  little 
time  to  give  to  the  progress  of  the  world. 
When  Professor  Agassiz  was  offered  $100,000 
to  lecture,  he  said  that  he  had  no  time  to  make 
money,  that  he  needed  all  his  time  for  thought. 
Rich  men  have  no  time  for  high  thought,  they 
need  all  their  time  to  make  money.  Men 
who  have  accumulated  millions  keep  on  ac- 
cumulating while  they  can,  because  generally 
that  is  all  they  know  how  to  do.  Generally 
their  tastes  have  not  been  developed  in  any 
direction  other  than  that  of  money  getting. 
First  they  begin  to  accumulate  to  provide 
for  a  rainy  day,  then  for  a  competency,  then 
for  a  fortune,  then  it  becomes  an  excitement 
and  amusement,  and  it  ends  by  being  the 


64  HIGHER   GROUND. 

only  thing  they  are  capable  of.  I  knew  a 
very  wealthy  man  many  times  a  millionnaire, 
who,  dying  recently,  inquired  with  almost 
his  dying  breath  for  the  last  market  quota- 
tions of  stocks.  There  are  exceptions  of 
course  ;  there  are  exceptions  to  all  rules. 
Rich  men  lead  in  killing  hogs  and  bullocks, 
in  selling  dry  goods  and  groceries,  in  cor- 
nering things,  and  in  all  material  enterprises, 
but  not  in  the  world  of  thought.  As  to 
the  world  of  thought  very  rich  men,  en- 
grossed with  business,  are  situated  very  much 
as  convicts  in  the  penitentiary  are  situated  as 
to  the  news  of  the  day.  A  stray  bit  of  thought 
may  reach  the  rich  man,  as  a  stray  bit  of  news 
may  reach  the  convict,  but  that  is  all.  The 
natural-born  accumulator  subordinates  every- 
thing to  the  one  supremely  important  object 
of  getting  things  of  which  he  has  no  need. 
It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  men  of  this 
stamp,  even  when  seeking  to  do  benevolent 
things  with  their  money,  fail  entirely  in  ac- 
complishing their  object.  I  say,  and  I  say  it 
without  fear  of  contradiction,  that  by  many 
such  men  a  law  once  enacted  and  fairly  car- 
ried out,  which  would  take  from  their  estates 
a  reasonable  share  and  secure  with  it  the 
greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number,  would 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  6$ 

be  regarded  as  a  boon.  In  the  current  num- 
ber (December,  1886),  of  the  "North  Ameri- 
can Review,"  Mr.  Pierre  Lorillard  has  an 
article  in  which  he  advocates  a  legacy  tax 
of  10  per  cent  on  all  estates  above  $200,000, 
upon  the  express  ground  that  such  a  tax 
would  tend  to  put  an  end  to  excessive  for- 
tunes. Mr.  Lorillard  is,  as  we  all  know,  not 
a  sentimentalist,  not  a  socialist,  but  a  very 
wealthy  manufacturer  of  chewing  and  smok- 
ing tobacco,  whose  estate  would  have  to  pay 
a  very  considerable  amount  of  money  under 
such  a  law  as  he  advocates. 

The  late  Mr.  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  one  of  the 
cunningest  lawyers  in  the  world,  left  the 
greater  portion  of  his  estate  for  benevolent 
purposes,  and  now  less  cunning  lawyers  than 
Mr.  Tilden  was  are  busy  setting  aside  his 
will.  If  the  law  had  taken  for  public  educa- 
tion, in  the  manner  which  I  propose,  one  half 
of  Mr.  Tilden's  estate,  there  would  still  have 
been  left  enough  to  give  to  his  relatives  much 
more  than  he  meant  to  give  them,  and  then 
there  would  still  have  been  left  enough  where- 
with to  perpetuate  Mr.  Tilden's  memory. 

Senator  Stanford's  case  is  another  one  in 
point.  By  founding  a  college  with  twenty 
millions  of  dollars  he  is  seeking  to  have  his 
S 


66  HIGHER  GROUND. 

name  go  down  to  posterity  as  a  benefactor 
of  his  race.  But  of  colleges  of  a  high  order 
there  are  already  enough.  It  is  a  very  stupid 
way  to  spend  so  much  money,  for  only  a  very 
limited  number  of  educated  men  and  women 
can  be  produced  by  an  institution  of  that  sort. 
The  way  to  make  good  education  general  is 
to  give  to  all  a  good  foundation  for  an  educa- 
tion ;  and  then  those  whose  bias  is  towards 
learning  will  struggle  forward  and  help  them- 
selves to  the  highest  possible  education.  Sen- 
ator Stanford's  twenty  millions  at  three  per 
cent  would  yield  yearly  six  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  and  six  hundred  thousand  dollars 
would,  on  the  basis  I  propose,  educate  in  man- 
ual training  schools  four  thousand  pupils 
yearly ;  and  out  of  the  four  thousand  pupils 
thus  started  upon  the  road  towards  learning, 
there  would  be  eventually  a  greater  number 
of  highly-educated  men  and  women  than 
Senator  Stanford's  money  will  ever  produce, 
—  leaving  the  manual  training  school  educa- 
tion of  the  rest  of  the  pupils  a  net  gain. 

When  a  sufficient  provision  has  been  made 
out  of  an  estate  for  public  uses,  to  be  spent 
not  to  suit  individual  caprice  but  in  the  man- 
ner most  conducive  to  public  welfare,  then  the 
relatives  of  the  deceased  should  have  the  rest, 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION'.  6? 

and  the  memory  of  the  dead  man  be  left  to 
stand  upon  its  merits  or  demerits  as  the  case 
may  be.  The  Vanderbilt  perpetuity,  the 
Tilden  act  of  self-glorification  are  contrary 
to  the  interests  of  the  people,  contrary  to 
public  policy,  and  the  law  should  step  in  and 
put  an  end  to  them. 


68  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXVIII. 

The  proposition  is  not  to  take  by  taxa- 
tion private  property,  without  compensation. 
Never  before  in  the  world  has  such  compen- 
sation been  given  for  property  as  there  would 
be  for  the  amount  of  this  tax.  The  compen- 
sation would  be  in  the  increased  happiness  of 
mankind.  The  rich  would  not  become  poor, 
and  the  poor  would  not  become  rich,  but 
everybody  would  be  more  comfortable.  This 
tax  would  not  make  life  harder  for  one  single 
human  being,  but  it  would  make  life  easier 
for  millions.  The  compensation  would  be  in 
a  peaceable  and  orderly  society  which  would 
never  be  at  war  with  itself.  The  compensa- 
tion would  be  in  perfect  security  of  property. 
The  more  property  a  man  has,  the  greater  is 
his  anxiety  about  its  security,  and  he  can  well 
afford  to  pay  a  higher  rate  for  security  in  pro- 
portion to  his  anxiety.  Now,  as  the  number 
of  men  holding  property  becomes  larger  so 
does  the  security  of  property  increase.  Where 
the  many  are  hopeless  about  acquiring  prop- 
erty there  can  be  no  security  of  property.  If 
to  make  property  secure  you  once  begin  to 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  69 

increase  the  army  there  will  be  no  end  of  it, 
and  soldiers  are  far  more  expensive  than 
schoolmasters.  It  is  much  cheaper  to  make 
good  citizens  by  means  of  schoolmasters  than 
it  is  to  shoot  bad  citizens  by  means  of  soldiers. 
And  we  must  have  either  more  schoolmasters 
or  more  soldiers.  The  proposition  which  I 
have  set  forth  would  without  any  additional 
soldiers  fill  the  large  house  with  peaceful  se- 
curity ;  it  would  fill  the  small  house  with  hope, 
self-respect,  aspiration,  pluck.  It  means  se- 
curity of  property  for  those  who  have  it ;  and 
for  those  who  have  it  not  it  means  a  fair 
chance  to  acquire  property.  And  therefore 
it  means  the  highest  possible  security  of 
property. 

The  security  of  property  which  tne  high 
education  of  all  the  people  would  produce 
would  make  the  succession  tax  the  best  possi- 
ble investment  for  all.  With  dynamite  and 
other  modern  means  of  destruction  at  hand  it 
is  in  the  interest  of  everybody  that  the  rising 
generation  shall  grow  up  to  be  intelligent  and 
efficient  men  and  women.  If  we  go  on  at  the 
present  rate,  it  will  be  only  a  short  time  before 
we  shall  be  as  afraid  of  the  rising  of  the  la- 
boring men  as  the  South  used  to  be  of  negro 
insurrections.  But  take  the  children  of  the 


7O  HIGHER   GROUND. 

anarchists  condemned  to  be  hanged  and  make 
them  intelligent  and  efficient  American  citi- 
zens, and  they  will  not  wish  to  march  under 
the  red  flag.  They  will  wish  to  march  only 
under  the  flag  under  which  they  were  made 
intelligent  and  efficient  men  and  women.  Can 
any  state  of  things  be  conceived  which  the 
great  body  of  the  common  people  would  fight 
harder  to  maintain  ?  This  proposition  is  quite 
as  much  in  the  interest  of  the  rich  as  it  is  in 
the  interest  of  the  poor. 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION. 


XXIX. 

This  measure  is  by  no  means  directed  against 
the  rich.  I  am  speaking  of  the  opposition  of 
the  rich  because  some  of  them  will  oppose  the 
succession  tax  as  being  aimed  and  directed 
against  them,  whereas  it  is  really  in  their  in- 
terest and  in  the  interest  of  everybody.  The 
rich  men  of  the  present  generation  will  all 
be  in  their  coffins  in  a  few  years.  They  can 
neither  much  help  nor  hinder  any  measure. 
The  barefooted  and  impecunious  descendants 
of  many  of  them  will  be  glad  enough  to  find 
the  world's  roads  easier.  The  policy  which  I 
propose  is  not  invented  to  despoil  anybody, 
but  to  bless  everybody.  I  am  proposing  a 
policy  to  affect  mainly  men  who  have  not  yet 
begun  to  accumulate  and  men  who  have  not 
yet  been  born.  I  am  speaking  of  a  proposi- 
tion broad  enough  for  the  universe,  and  alto- 
gether too  broad  to  be  directed  against  any 
individual  or  individuals.  I  am  speaking  of  a 
policy  for  all  men  and  for  all  time.  This 
measure  would  bear  comparatively  little  on 


72  HIGHER   GROUND. 

the  present  generation.  It  is  for  the  immense 
future.  Once  established,  the  generations 
born  under  it  would  never  think  of  changing 
it,  because  its  effects  upon  humanity  would  be 
beneficial  beyond  anything  ever  conceived. 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  73 


XXX. 

This  measure,  more  than  anything  else  that 
could  be  devised,  would  put  an  end  to  the 
arraying  of  the  masses  against  the  classes. 
The  very  best  thing  that  wealthy  people  can 
get  for  their  money  is  high  education  for  their 
children,  and  this  measure  once  established 
the  poor  would  be  able  to  get  that,  too.  In- 
stead of  having  the  fierce  hatred  for  the  pos- 
sessors of  wealth  which  is  now  developing  in 
this  country,  the  poor  would  say  of  a  rich  man  : 
Let  him  go  on  accumulating  money ;  at  his 
death  some  of  his  money  will  be  our  money 
for  the  education  of  our  children  ;  and  the 
more  he  accumulates  the  more  we  shall  get. 

This  measure  once  established,  the  cities, 
instead  of  being  sores  upon  the  body  politic, 
would  be  filled  with  a  rising  generation  of 
intelligent  youth  that  would  reform  politics. 
Corruption  in  our  city  government  would 
measurably  cease.  Where  do  corrupt  alder- 
men and  legislators  mainly  come  from  ?  They 
come  from,  and  are  elected  in,  sections  of  the 
city  noted  for  the  ignorance  of  the  inhabitants. 
The  sections  of  the  city  where  the  most  in- 


74  HIGHER   GROUND. 

telligent  people  live  generally  elect  intelligent, 
honest,  and  fair-minded  representatives.  The 
ignorant  sections  elect  ignorant,  corrupt,  and 
thievish  representatives.  Like  master,  like 
man. 

In  a  few  years  we  should  have  the  most  in- 
telligent population  on  the  earth.  We  should 
have  a  population  altogether  too  intelligent 
for  lawlessness. 

If  all  the  children  of  the  United  States,  the 
children  of  the  laboring  population  as  well  as 
the  children  of  the  well-to-do,  could  have  this 
education,  our  boast  that  in  this  country  there 
are  equal  opportunities  for  all  would  come 
very  near  being  true. 

This  training  of  the  young  into  intelligence 
and  efficiency,  accompanied  with  payment  to 
their  parents  for  the  time  spent  in  getting  the 
training,  would  go  very  far  towards  solving  the 
labor  question.  There  is  nothing  else  that 
would  go  so  far  towards  solving  it.  Regard- 
less of  the  labor  question,  this  would  be  a 
good  thing  to  do.  If  there  were  no  labor 
question  at  all,  it  would  still  be  the  very  best 
thing  to  do.  But  there  is  a  labor  question, 
and  so  long  as  we  do  not  solve  it  by  education 
it  will  be  and  abide  and  remain  with  us  forever, 
an  irrepressible  conflict. 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  75 

Instead  of  going  for  a  mere  pittance  into 
the  coal  mine,  the  mill,  or  the  factory,  to  be 
dwarfed  physically,  mentally,  and  morally,  by 
long  hours,  over-work,  and  evil  associations, 
the  children  of  the  poor,  for  like  wages  where- 
with to  buy  bread,  would  gladly  crowd  into  the 
schools.  Getting  them  into  the  schools  and 
keeping  them  there  throughout  the  public 
course  would  bring  trained  to  the  front  all 
the  brains  and  ability  born  in  the  community. 
It  would  bring  capacity  to  the  front,  from  the 
Five  Points  as  well  as  from  Murray  Hill.  It 
would  light  up  with  bright  hopes  and  aspira- 
tions for  the  children  the  poorest  hovel.  It 
would  mean  fewer  tramps,  fewer  paupers, 
fewer  hovels,  and  more  comfortable  people. 
More  than  ever  before  it  would  make  of 
this  land  for  struggling  humanity  an  earthly 
paradise. 


76  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXXI. 

If  this  proposition  were  carried  into  effect 
it  would  immediately  settle  the  child-labor 
question.  The  children  would  be  at  school, 
where  they  ought  to  be.  The  orphans  and 
the  fatherless  would  be  educated.  The  chil- 
dren of  drunkards  would  be  educated.  Charity 
would  still  cover  a  multitude  of  sins,  but 
charity  would  be  relieved  from  nearly  all  re- 
sponsibility toward  the  rising  generation. 
The  young  have  not  sinned  by  coming  into 
the  world,  and  charity  should  not  be  troubled 
about  them.  This  measure  enacted,  charity 
would  be  left  to  its  legitimate  function  of  re- 
lieving distress.  Charity  would  have  nothing 
to  do  with  education  ;  a  good  education  would 
become  the  birthright  of  every  American 
child. 

The  civilizing  home  influence  of  children 
trained  up  to  the  point  of  a  complete  high- 
school  education  would  entirely  change  the 
present  aspect  of  the  homes  of  the  country. 
In  thousands  of  homes  the  well-trained  chil- 
dren would  lead  their  parents  into  gentler 
and  better  ways.  Even  people  who  had  no 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  fj 

appreciation  of  education  would  educate  their 
children  if  paid  for  doing  it.  Nowadays 
people  leave  their  children  in  ignorance,  be- 
cause they  cannot  afford  the  expense  of  edu- 
cating them.  But  under  my  proposition  it 
would  be  cheaper  for  parents  to  educate  their 
children  than  to  leave  them  in  ignorance. 
The  poorer  the  parents,  the  more  anxious 
would  they  be  to  educate  their  children,  and 
the  more  certain  would  they  be  to  do  it. 
Poor  parents  would  make  life  easier  for  them- 
selves simply  by  educating  their  children. 
Between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  twenty  each 
child  would  draw  each  year  an  average  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  for  support  while 
being  educated.  If  there  were  four  children 
in  a  family  their  aggregate  school-years  after 
twelve  would  be  thirty-two;  and  the  family 
would  draw  for  their  schooling  from  the  pub- 
lic fund,  during  say  sixteen  years,  four  thou- 
sand eight  hundred  dollars.  The  intelligent 
and  efficient  young  would  take  care  of  and 
provide  for  the  old  and  infirm.  Of  the  misery 
of  the  world  whose  origin  is  in  want,  one  half 
would  disappear.  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  in- 
asmuch as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the 
least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it 
unto  me."  Gathering  the  children  from  the 


78  HIGHER  GROUND. 

highways  and  byways,  from  the  very  gutter, 
rescuing  them  from  vice  and  crime,  putting 
them  in  the  way  of  being  useful  men  and 
women,  —  would  this  measure  be  pleasing  or 
displeasing  to  the  lowly  Galilean  who  "  went 
about  doing  good  ? "  Think  of  it,  ye  who 
would  be  his  followers ! 

In  a  money  way  this  measure  would  imme- 
diately improve  the  condition  of  the  laboring 
man  more  than  all  the  strikes  and  all  the  boy- 
cotts ever  have  improved  it  or  ever  can  im- 
prove it.  It  would  bring  a  thousand-fold 
more  benefit  than  laboring  men  have  ever 
asked  for,  sought  for,  or  thought  of.  Intelli- 
gence and  efficiency,  and  consequently  com- 
fort, would  become  the  heritage  of  the  poor. 
This  measure  would  substantially  bring  about 
the  abolishment  of  poverty. 

This  measure  would  settle  all  race  ques- 
tions by  making  the  colored  people  intelligent 
and  efficient  workers.  Each  individual  colored 
man  and  woman  who  becomes  intelligent  and 
efficient  solves  the  race  question  as  to  himself 
or  herself.  John  H.  Alexander,  the  colored 
youth  who  stood  second  in  his  class  at  West 
Point  this  year,  has  solved  the  race  question 
for  himself.  "  I  expect,"  he  says,  "  to  receive 
a  second  lieutenancy  in  the  Ninth  Cavalry, 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  79 

where  there  are  colored  men.  I  had  not  the 
slightest  insult  offered  me  at  West  Point  on 
account  of  my  color.  Indeed,  I  think  I  was 
more  leniently  treated  by  my  classmates  than 
some  white  men.  I  minded  my  own  business, 
and  got  along  very  well." 


80  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXXII. 

There  is  not  a  man,  woman,  or  child  in  the 
country  that  would  fail  to  reap  benefit  from 
this  measure.  The  man  who  works  for  wages 
would  have  better  wages.  Taking  all  the 
young  people  under  twenty  out  of  the  compe- 
tition as  wage-workers  would  necessarily  cause 
wages  to  rise.  In  any  country  new  employ- 
ments are  devised  in  proportion  to  the  in- 
telligence and  skill  of  the  people.  Indians, 
Spaniards,  and  Turks,  because  they  are  un- 
lettered and  unskilful,  never  develop  new 
employments.  Americans,  because  they  are 
intelligent  and  skilful,  devise  new  employ- 
ments constantly.  Raising  the  intelligence 
and  skill  of  this  people  in  the  manner  proposed 
would  develop  endless  new  employments  to 
the  immense  advantage  of  everybody. 

And  if  the  man  who  works  for  wages  would 
have  better  wages,  the  man  who  has  things  to 
sell  would  have  better  customers.  The  higher 
men  rise  in  intelligence  and  skill,  the  more 
they  earn  and  the  more  they  are  able  to  buy. 
Every  man  who  has  things  to  sell  is  inter- 
ested in  having  the  position  of  the  laboring 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  8 1 

man  improved.  Commerce  thrives,  not  on 
tramps,  but  on  well-to-do  customers.  The 
position  of  a  merchant  who  wishes  a  general 
reduction  of  wages  is  the  position  of  a  man 
who  wishes  to  impoverish  his  customers.  No 
man  of  sense  would  wish  to  impoverish  his 
own  customers. 


82  HIGHER    GROUND. 


XXXIII. 

This  measure  would  benefit  the  farmer  and 
the  man  in  active  business  as  much  as  it 
would  the  mere  wage-earner.  There  would 
be  a  better  market  for  beef  and  potatoes,  for 
groceries,  for  dry  goods,  for  boots  and  shoes. 
The  preacher  and  the  doctor  and  the  dentist 
would  fare  better.  Everybody  would  fare 
better  by  reason  of  the  immense  amount  of 
money  that  would  be  put  into  circulation. 
With  the  impetus  that  would  be  given  to 
business  by  this  measure,  after  paying  ten 
per  cent  tax  on  a  million  the  remaining  nine 
hundred  thousand  dollars  would  bring  in 
more  income  every  year  than  the  original 
million  would  have  done. 

The  immense  amount  of  money  which  this 
measure  would  put  in  circulation  would  go 
into  the  hands  of  people  who  have  little  and 
are  compelled  to  spend  nearly  all  they  have. 
As  fast  as  collected  it  would  go  into  circula- 
tion and  make  business  brisk.  Give  a  million 
of  dollars  to  Mr.  Jay  Gould,  and  it  enables 
him  to  corner  more  things.  But  divide  a 
million  dollars  among  ten  thousand  families, 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  83 

and  it  goes  into  circulation  for  the  necessaries 
of  life,  and  improves  business.  The  laboring- 
man  would  profit  much,  the  business  man 
would  profit  still  more,  and  the  rising  gene- 
ration would  prorit  most  of  all.  Peace  and 
prosperity  would  settle  down  among  us  for- 
evermore,  and  they  would  be  cheaply  bought. 

Nobody  need  be  afraid  to  have  the  condi- 
tion of  the  average  man  improved.  Nobody 
will  be  the  worse  for  it.  Everybody  will  be 
the  better  for  it.  In  the  improvement  of  the 
condition  of  the  common  average  man  lies 
the  hope  of  the  world.  This  proposition  does 
not  mean  that  those  who  are  up  shall  be 
dragged  down  ;  it  means  that  those  who  are 
down  shall  be  helped  up.  It  means  not 
fewer,  but  more,  ladies  and  gentlemen  to  the 
acre. 

If  all  the  people  were  educated  as  I  pro- 
pose, who  would  do  the  coarse  drudgery  ?  It 
will  be  a  long  time  before  the  world  will  be 
without  multitudes  fit  for  nothing  but  drudg- 
ery. The  people  with  ability  for  nothing 
else  but  coarse  drudgery  would  do  it.  The 
people  who  could  find  nothing  better  to  do 
would  do  it.  The  world  is  full  of  such  people 
now,  and  I  fear  it  will  always  be  full  of  people 
who  will  be  glad  enough  to  do  the  drudg- 


84  HIGHER   GROUND. 

ery.  Who  shaves  you  ?  Who  shoulders  your 
trunk  ?  Rarely  men  of  American  birth,  be- 
cause they  find  ways  of  earning  a  livelihood 
more  in  accordance  with  their  tastes.  But 
barbers  and  porters  abound  everywhere ;  and 
if  a  thousand  times  as  many  were  needed, 
Germany  would  easily  furnish  the  barbers, 
and  Ireland  the  porters. 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  85 


XXXIV. 

The  American  method  of  righting  things 
is  by  argument  and  by  the  ballot.  It  pre- 
supposes an  intelligent  population.  The  edu- 
cation which  did  very  well  a  hundred  years 
ago  is  not  sufficient  for  us  now.  The  facts 
upon  which  intelligence  must  act  are  much 
more  numerous,  and  they  are  increasing  every 
day.  Our  affairs  are  a  thousand-fold  more 
complicated  now  than  they  were  then. 

In  view  of  the  difficulties  which  ignorance 
brings  upon  us,  some  would  limit  the  right 
of  suffrage  to  those  who  can  read  and  write 
—  as  if  those  who  can  barely  read  and  write 
are  fit  to  have  a  voice  in  this  government. 
The  American  remedy  for  ignorance  is  not  a 
curtailment  of  rights  and  privileges.  The 
true  remedy  for  ignorance  is  to  do  away  with 
it.  The  true  remedy  for  ignorance  is  to  pro- 
vide high  and  broad  education  for  all  the 
people.  The  American  remedy  for  ignorance 
is  not  a  curtailment  of  rights  and  privileges, 
but  an  enlargement  of  intelligence. 

Nineteen  out  of  twenty  American  children 
begin  the  struggle  of  life  without  money. 


86  HIGHER    GROUND. 

With  the  manual  training  school  education, 
they  would  be  far  better  fitted  to  begin  life 
without  assistance  than  if  they  had  been  edu- 
cated at  Harvard  or  at  Yale,  because  their 
acquaintance  with  things  would  be  greater. 

The  proposition  which  I  have  stated  is  to 
give  to  the  son  of  Mr.  Vanderbilt's  brakeman 
an  education  as  good  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses as  Mr.  Vanderbilt  can  give  to  his  own 
son.  The  proposition  means  brains  to  the 
front,  no  matter  where  they  may  be  found. 

The  American  idea  is  not  to  level  men 
down  to  equality.  The  American  idea  is  by 
means  of  intelligence  to  raise  men  up  to 
equality.  The  carrying  out  of  this  proposi- 
tion would  be  a  greater  step  forward  than 
has  ever  been  taken  towards  giving  all  men  a 
fair  and  equal  start  in  the  world  —  towards  a 
fair  field  for  all  and  favor  to  none  —  towards 
practical  human  equality.  The  proposed 
measure  is  the  necessary  and  logical  sequence 
of  the  immortal  Declaration  of  our  Revolu- 
tionary forefathers. 

The  American  people  educated  in  the 
manner  proposed  would  be  a  people  of  in- 
telligence and  efficiency  such  as  the  world 
has  never  yet  seen.  Only  the  very  few  would 
be  ignorant  and  inefficient.  The  many  would 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  87 

be  intelligent  and  efficient.  This  measure 
once  enacted,  all  anxiety  about  the  perpetuity 
of  republican  institutions  would  immediately 
cease.  "  The  true  principle  of  free  and  popu- 
lar government,"  said  Daniel  Webster  in  his 
Plymouth  Rock  oration,  "  would  seem  to  be  so 
to  construct  it  as  to  give  to  all,  or  at  least 
to  a  very  great  majority,  an  interest  in  its 
preservation  ;  to  found  it,  as  other  things  are 
founded,  on  men's  interests.  .  .  .  The  freest 
government,  if  it  could  exist,  would  not  be 
long  acceptable  if  the  tendency  of  the  laws 
were  to  create  a  rapid  accumulation  of  prop- 
erty in  a  few  hands,  and  to  render  the  great 
mass  of  the  population  penniless." 


88  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXXV. 

Is  there  any  danger  in  this  proposition  ? 
Do  high-school  graduates  riot  ?  Is  there  any 
danger  in  general  intelligence  and  general 
efficiency  ?  Is  there  anything  unfair  in  this 
proposition  ?  Is  it  a  scheme  for  the  benefit 
of  the  few  ? 

Would  the  nation  get  an  equivalent  for  the 
money  spent  ?  In  return  for  the  money  spent 
the  nation  would  get  intelligent  and  efficient 
citizens,  who,  instead  of  waiting  for  something 
to  turn  up,  would  be  able  to  turn  up  some- 
thing for  themselves.  The  proposed  measure 
means  a  population  sufficiently  intelligent  and 
efficient  to  devise  such  legislation  as  shall 
put  an  end  to  the  reign  of  the  stock  waterers. 
The  proposed  measure  means  that  hereafter 
it  shall  be  easier  than  now  to  acquire  a  com- 
petency by  honest  industry, —  all  the  more  be- 
cause it  will  be  made  more  difficult  to  acquire 
millions  by  stupendous  confidence  games.  It 
means  fewer  millions  acquired  by  cruising 
close  up  under  the  walls  of  the  penitentiary, 
fewer  penitentiary  millionnaires,  fewer  tramps, 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  89 

fewer  paupers,  fewer  hovels,  and  a  larger  num- 
ber of  comfortable  people. 

It  will  be  said  that  such  application  of  pub- 
lic money  is  contrary  to  usage.  Since  when 
have  we  in  this  country  begun  to  object  to 
things  because  they  are  new  ?  Everything 
American  is  new.  To  govern  by  keeping 
men  down  is  old.  To  govern  by  raising  men 
up  is  new.  Here,  where  everything  is  new, 
newness  is  not  fatal.  The  only  question  that 
is  to  the  point  in  this  matter  is,  Is  the  pro- 
position based  upon  common-sense  ?  This  is 
is  the  one  blessed  land  under  the  sun  in  which 
one  man  with  common-sense  on  his  side  is 
an  eventual  majority. 

But,  says  some  objector,  all  Europe  would 
pour  in  upon  us  to  get  the  benefit  of  such  a 
state  of  things.  That  would  be  nothing  new. 
All  Europe  is  pouring  in  upon  us  now.  If 
immigration  is  undesirable  and  dangerous,  we 
would  do  better  to  begin  to  do  something  about 
it  immediately.  Half  a  million  of  immigrants 
have  already  landed  in  this  country  this  year, 
and  before  the  year  is  out  the  number  will 
run  up  to  nearly  a  million.  These  people 
are  coming  here  by  reason  of  the  superior 
chances  in  life  already  offered  them.  They 
are  coming  lured  by  better  wages  for  the 


Cp  HIGHER   GROUND. 

grown  people  and  the  common  school  for  the 
children.  They  are  coming  because  at  the 
very  ends  of  the  earth,  the  lowest  of  the  low, 
the  commonest  of  the  common,  and  the  hum- 
blest of  the  humble  have  heard  and  believe 
and  know  that  here  among  utter  strangers 
they  will  be  safer  from  want  and  starvation 
than  in  their  native  places  among  friends. 
They  are  coming  because  they  have  heard 
and  believe  and  know  that  here  we  feed  the 
hungry,  clothe  the  naked,  give  land  to  the 
landless  and  homes  to  the  homeless.  They 
are  coming  because  heretofore  we  have  taken 
from  their  dark  dungeons  the  dazed  victims 
of  oppression  and  set  them  in  the  sunshine 
and  fresh  air  of  American  liberty.  They  are 
coming  because  they  have  heard  and  believe 
and  know  that  heretofore  we  have  given  so 
fair  a  field  to  all  that  the  sons  of  European 
peasants,  with  a  thousand  generations  of 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  behind 
them,  have  here  become  chiefs.  From  his 
native  bog  and  into  the  steerage,  out  of  the 
steerage  and  through  the  Castle  Garden  of 
his  day,  in  rags  and  tatters,  carrying  all  his 
earthly  belongings  in  a  pocket  handkerchief 
on  a  shillelah,  came  the  Irishman,  whose  son, 
Andrew  Jackson,  became  the  hero  of  New 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  91 

Orleans  and  President  of  the  United  States. 
If  this  immigration  is  undesirable  and  danger- 
ous it  is  undesirable  and  dangerous  now,  and 
something  should  immediately  be  done  to 
stop  it.  But  if  this  immigration  is  undesira- 
ble and  dangerous  now,  the  measure  I  propose 
would  "  out  of  this  nettle  danger  pluck  the 
flower  safety,"  by  educating  and  American- 
izing the  children  of  the  immigrants.  With 
or  without  additional  inducements  these  peo- 
ple will  continue  to  come.  Meanwhile  we 
are  surely  not  to  cease  taking  measures  for 
our  own  betterment  lest  by  reason  thereof  a 
greater  number  should  come.  If  we  do  not 
want  them,  let  us  say  so,  and  put  an  end  to 
their  coming. 


92  HIGHER  GROUND. 


XXXVI. 

To  whom  would  this  measure  bring  suffer- 
ing? To  no  one.  The  only  objection  to  it, 
then,  is  that,  like  the  school  tax  which  is 
levied  for  the  good  of  all,  this  measure  would 
deprive  the  few  of  what  they  could  well  spare, 
—  spare  without  suffering  and  spare  with 
profit,  because  it  would  be  found  to  be  a  good 
investment.  Socialism  proposes  that  all  pro- 
duction and  all  distribution  shall  be  done  by 
the  State,  —  the  State  to  direct  everything 
and  everybody  ;  people  are  to  eat  what  is  set 
before  them,  wear  what  is  issued  to  them, 
and  do  the  tasks  assigned  them.  High  train- 
ing for  all  would  cultivate  and  intensify 
individual  bias,  and  render  odious  the  bare 
thought  of  Socialism.  Communism  proposes 
that  no  individual  shall  own  anything,  the 
community  everything.  In  proposing  a  plan 
whereby  all  may  be  made  more  efficient  and 
thereby  more  able  to  acquire  property,  have  I 
not  proposed  a  state  of  things  which  would  be 
the  very  reverse  of  Communism  ?  In  show- 
ing how  individual  helplessness  may  be  abol- 
ished, have  I  not  proposed  the  very  thing  that 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  93 

would  cause  all  agitation  for  communism  to 
die  out  ? 

Some  wiseacre  will  be  sure  to  say  that  this 
proposition  is  communistic.  This  proposition 
is  precisely  as  communistic  as  it  is  —  and  no 
more  communistic  than  it  is — to  tax  the  man 
who  has  no  children,  in  order  to  pay  for  the 
education  of  other  people's  children.  Nearly 
all  my  life,  having  no  children  of  my  own,  I 
have  been  made  to  pay  taxes  to  educate  other 
people's  children.  If  this  is  communism,  I 
approve  of  it.  The  school  tax  is  levied  to 
render  more  secure  person,  liberty,  and  prop- 
erty. The  measure  I  propose  is  simply  an 
additional  means  to  accomplish  the  same 
end. 

Our  school  system  is  the  national  insurance 
company  which  insures  us  against  lawless- 
ness and  anarchy.  The  school  tax  is  the 
annual  insurance  premium.  What  I  propose 
is  to  strengthen  the  national  insurance  com- 
pany and  to  lessen  the  dangers  against  which 
it  insures.  If  the  school  tax  is  communistic, 
then  this  proposition  is  communistic.  If 
the  school  tax  is  not  communistic,  then  this 
proposition  is  not  communistic.  If  this  propo- 
sition is  communistic,  then  the  proposition 
of  the  national  Republican  platform  of  1884 


94  HIGHER   GROUND. 

must  have  a  strong  leaning  towards  commu- 
nism.    It  says  :  — 

"  We  favor  a  wise  and  judicious  system  of  gen- 
eral education  by  adequate  appropriation  from  the 
national  revenues,  wherever  the  same  is  needed." 

There  is  no  communism  in  the  national 
Republican  platform  of  1884.  Neither  is 
there  any  communism  in  my  proposition.  My 
proposition  has  nothing  in  common  with  com- 
munism. Communism  might  solve  the  capi- 
tal and  labor  problem  for  a  week,  or  a  month, 
or  a  year,  and  then  we  should  have  the  same 
problem  back  again.  What  we  need,  to  solve 
the  problem,  is  not  a  communistic  distribution 
of  property,  which  would  not  do  it ;  but  what 
we  must  have,  to  solve  the  capital  and  labor 
problem  effectually  and  permanently,  is  the 
greatest  possible  distribution  of  individual 
power  and  individual  ability  to  acquire  prop- 
erty. The  greater  the  number  of  men  who 
have  property  of  their  own,  the  smaller  will 
be  the  number  of  men  who  will  wish  to  divide 
things. 


THE  LABOR   QUESTION.  95 


XXXVII. 

This  thing  can  be  done  by  votes.  It  de- 
pends only  upon  ourselves.  If  we  choose  to 
take  this  thing  in  hand  we  can  accomplish  it, 
and  we  can  accomplish  it  immediately.  We 
are  our  own  masters.  This  thing  can  be  done 
locally,  in  each  State  separately.  Any  State 
Legislature  can  pass  the  necessary  law,  or  if 
need  be  can  pass  and  submit  to  the  people 
of  the  State  a  constitutional  amendment  to 
carry  into  effect  this  measure. 

In  this  movement  the  laboring-men  of  the 
city  would  have  the  sympathy  and  co-opera- 
tion of  the  laboring-men  of  the  country.  The 
wage-workers  of  the  city  are  not  the  only 
people  interested  in  improving  their  own  con- 
dition. The  millions  of  American  farmers 
will  be  as  heartily  for  this  measure  as  the 
wage-workers  of  the  city.  The  proceeds  of 
the  tax  would  come  mainly  from  the  cities 
where  the  large  fortunes  are,  and  would  in 
part  flow  out  to  the  country,  and  give  the 
country  boys  and  girls  an  education  and  op- 
portunities in  life  such  as  they  have  never 
yet  had.  The  farmer  who  raises  corn,  eats 
coarse  food,  wears  coarse  clothes,  and  toils 


96  HIGHER  GROUND. 

without  ceasing  for  the  lowest  reward  in  this 
country,  will  be  in  favor  of  a  measure  which 
would  give  his  children  opportunities  in  the 
world  equal  with  those  of  the  broker  who  sells 
corn  when  he  has  none,  and  buys  corn  when 
he  wants  none,  and  thereby  gets  money  where- 
with to  clothe  himself  and  his  wife  and  his 
children    in    purple   and   fine   linen   and    to 
fare  sumptuously  every  day.     It  will  be  the 
farmer's  very  first   chance   to   begin    to   get 
anywhere   near   even   with   the    transporters 
and  leeches  who  impoverish  him  and  literally 
make  him  work  for  them.     For  thousands  of 
years  has  been  asked  the  question  which  the 
writer  of  Ecclesiasticus  puts :  "  How  can  he 
get  wisdom  that  holdeth  the  plow,  that  glori- 
eth  in  the  goad,  that  driveth   oxen   and   is 
occupied  with  the  care  of  bullocks?"     Never 
before  has  the  question  been  answered,  but  it 
is  answered  by  the  Manual  Training  School 
and  the  measure  which  I  advocate.     A  strug- 
gle for  higher  intelligence  and  efficiency  would 
command  the  sympathy  of  the  whole  Amer- 
ican   people    as   nothing    else   would.      The 
succession  tax,  and,  by  means  of  it,  higher 
intelligence   and    efficiency   for    the    people, 
would    as    a    platform    fire    the    land    with 
enthusiasm. 


THE  LABOR  QUESTION.  97 


XXXVIII. 

Does  the  magnitude  of  the  work  appall  ? 
Are  we,  the  people,  to  be  afraid  of  a  great 
undertaking  ?  Are  we  not  the  same  people 
who,  only  a  few  years  ago,  in  a  great  cause, 
raised  and  kept  on  foot  a  million  of  men,  at 
an  expense  of  several  millions  of  dollars  each 
day  ?  Are  we  not  the  same  people  who  have 
nearly  paid  the  national  debt?  On  all  the 
earth  no  other  nation  has  ever  done  the  like. 

On  all  the  earth  there  has  never  been  a 
higher  aspiration  for  a  people.  On  all  the 
earth  no  other  nation  has  ever  set  itself  so 
high  an  aim.  The  proposition  is  that  here 
and  now,  in  our  generation  and  upon  our  soil, 
shall  begin  to  come  to  pass  that  better  condi- 
tion for  mankind  whereof  in  their  raptures 
poets  have  dreamed,  for  which  in  their  agonies 
saints  have  prayed,  for  which  upon  the  world's 
battlefields  patriots  have  fought  and  bled  and 
died. 

When  upon  this  soil  was  born  the  first  child 

of  our  race,  the  genius  of  America  stood  by 

the  humble  cradle  and  said  :  Unto  you  and 

your  children  forevermore  do  I  give  this  noble 

7 


98  HIGHER   GROUND. 

land.  It  is  a  land  unequalled  for  resources  ; 
manifold  and  plentiful  shall  be  the  harvests. 
There  shall  be  enough  and  to  spare  for  all, 
full  measure,  shaken  down  and  running  over. 
Hitherto  the  world  has  been  full  of  strong 
government  and  weak  people.  In  this  land, 
in  schools  free  for  all,  shall  be  taught  ideas 
clear  as  diamonds  and  broad  as  the  universe. 
Intelligence  shall  make  the  people  strong, 
the  people  shall  be  the  government,  and  the 
strength  of  the  people  shall  be  the  strength 
of  the  government.  There  shall  be  a  fair 
field  for  all,  and  favor  for  none.  By  doing 
noble  deeds  each  man  shall  here  at  pleasure 
write  his  own  patent  of  nobility.  The  sweet- 
est lay  of  the  poet,  the  cunningest  strain  of 
the  musician,  and  the  never-ending  note  of 
the  trumpet  of  fame  shall  be  for  the  child 
of  the  humblest  cottage. 


THE   MANUAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL. 


A  man  should  have  a  farm  or  a  mechanical  craft  for 
his  culture.  —  R.  W.  EMERSON. 

Let  the  youth  once  learn  to  take  a  straight  shaving 
off  a  plank,  or  draw  a  fine  curve  without  faltering,  or 
lay  a  brick  level  in  its  mortar,  and  he  has  learned  a 
multitude  of  other  matters  which  no  lips  of  man  could 
ever  teach  him.  —  JOHN  RUSKIN. 

The  great  question  of  the  world  is  how  to  give  every 
man  a  man's  share  in  what  goes  on  in  life.  Not  a  pig's 
share,  nor  a  horse's  share,  not  the  share  of  a  machine 
fed  with  oil  only  to  make  it  work,  and  nothing  else.  It 
is  n't  a  man's  share  just  to  mind  your  pin-making,  and 
higgle  about  your  own  wages,  and  bring  up  your  family 
to  be  ignorant  sons  of  ignorant  fathers,  and  no  better 
prospect ;  that  is  a  slave's  share.  —  GEORGE  ELIOT. 

If  we  ask  a  boy  to  take  his  place  at  a  carpenter's 
bench,  it  is  not  that  we  wish  to  make  a  carpenter  of 
him,  but  that  we  wish  to  make  him  more  of  a  man. 
We  know  that  there  is  only  one  chance  in  fifty  that  he 
will  use  the  saw,  the  chisel,  the  plane,  the  hammer,  as 
the  tools  by  which  he  earns  his  bread  ;  but  if  he  has 
had  proper  training  in  their  use,  he  will  carry  to  his 
work  in  life,  whatever  it  may  be,  not  only  a  better  hand 
and  a  better  eye,  but  also  a  better  mind,  a  mind  more 
perfectly  filled  and  rounded  out  on  all  sides. —  FRANCIS 
A.  WALKER. 


THE 


MANUAL    TRAINING    SCHOOL. 


I. 

YANKEE  ingenuity  is  proverbial.  The  Yan- 
kee was  made  ingenious  by  the  adverse  cir- 
cumstances under  which  he  existed.  The 
main  circumstance  which  made  the  Yankee 
ingenious  was  that  whenever  he  wanted  any- 
thing he  himself  had  to  make  it  or  go  without 
it.  As  the  Yankee  wanted  a  great  many 
things  he  learned  to  make  a  great  many 
things,  and  thus  he  became  very  ingenious. 
But  adverse  circumstances  alone  do  not  de- 
velope  ingenuity.  The  North  Carolinian  has 
had  adverse  circumstances  quite  equal  to 
those  of  the  Yankee.  Why  has  not  he  be- 
come ingenious  ?  Simply,  because  with  his 
adverse  circumstances  the  North  Carolinian 
has  not  had  the  spelling-book  and  the  New- 
England  primer  to  stir  up  a  circulation  in  his 


104  HIGHER   GROUND. 

head.  The  saving  element  in  the  Yankee's 
adverse  circumstances,  which  has  made  him 
ingenious,  and  from  the  lack  of  which  the 
North  Carolinian  has  failed  to  become  ingen- 
ious, is  the  Common  School. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      10$ 


II. 


The  adverse  circumstances  under  which 
each  man  had  to  make  everything  for  himself 
have  disappeared  from  this  country.  Instead 
of  them  has  come  the  Manual  Training 
School,  which  is  a  complete  set  of  improved 
adverse  Yankee  circumstances  for  training 
the  young  in  intelligence  and  ingenuity.  The 
class  which  Professor  Woodward  of  St.  Louis 
graduated  in  1883  introduced  into  the  world  an 
entirely  new  product.  "  Boys  about  eighteen 
years  of  age,  who  three  years  before  had  never 
touched  tools  with  a  view  to  becoming  skilled 
with  them,  had  drawn  plans  for  several  steam- 
engines.  They  had  drawn  the  patterns  on 
paper.  They  had  made  the  patterns  in  wood. 
They  had  been  forced  to  have  the  castings 
done  by  other  hands,  because  there  were  in 
the  school  no  facilities  for  making  castings. 
They  could  have  made  the  castings  if  there  had 
been  facilities  for  doing  so.  The  boys  had  done 
the  chipping  and  the  filing  and  the  lathe-work. 
They  had  put  together  their  engines.  They 
had  connected  them  to  a  supply  of  steam,  and 
at  the  word  of  command  steam  was  turned  on, 


106  HIGHER  GROUND. 

and  the  engines  began  to  run.  In  the  educa- 
tion of  these  boys  their  purely  mental  studies 
had  not  been  neglected."  In  the  language  of 
Mr.  Dowd,  the  Superintendent  of  Schools  at 
Toledo,  all  their  manual  exercises  had  been 
intellectual  exercises,  and  they  were  ready  to 
stand  right  up  and  be  examined  in  books  side 
by  side  with  boys  who  had  devoted  all  their 
time  to  books.1 

1  See  Appendix,  VI. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      IO/ 


III. 

At  the  present  time  the  majority  of  children 
are  taken  away  from  school  early  in  order  to 
learn  to  gain  their  livelihood.  Millions  are 
thus  kept  in  life-long  ignorance.  Parents 
take  their  children  from  school  early  now, 
not  only  to  avoid  the  expense  of  keeping 
them  there,  but  often  because  parents  fail  to 
see  that  more  schooling  would  make  their 
children  better  bread-winners.  It  is  only 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  if  the  children 
could  be  taught  at  school  more  of  that  which 
would  help  them  to  gain  their  livelihood,  par- 
ents would  make  far  greater  sacrifices  than 
now  to  keep  them  there  longer. 

Our  need  is  something  which  shall  keep 
the  children  at  school  throughout  the  public 
course,  including  the  high  school.  This  want 
is,  as  I  believe,  to  be  supplied  by  the  Manual 
Training  School.  The  Manual  Training  School 
is  simply  a  high  school  with  the  manual  feat- 
ure added.  The  manual  feature  can  be  added 
to  any  high  school.  From  the  experience  we 
have  already  had,  we  know  that  the  manual 
feature  added  to  the  high-school  course  will 


108  HIGHER   GROUND. 

fill  the  high  schools  and  necessitate  their  mul- 
tiplication. The  high  schools  are  not  full,  but 
the  manual  training  schools,  in  spite  of  high 
tuition  fees,  are  full  to  overflowing.  They  are 
full  of  boys  of  whom  at  least  one  half  would 
not  have  been  in  any  school  but  for  the  man- 
ual training.  When  the  curriculum  of  the 
manual  training  school,  which  embodies  the 
production  of  superior  bread-winning  qualities, 
together  with  high  mental  training,  shall  in 
the  public  high  school,  free  of  charge,  become 
the  birthright  of  every  child  in  the  land,  it 
will  become  clearer  to  all  that  more  schooling 
will  make  better  bread-winners.  The  bread- 
winning  training  will  lure  parents  and  children, 
and  it  will  lure  the  children  into  superior  intel- 
ligence. If  the  Manual  Training  School  had 
no  other  justification,  it  would  be  amply  justi- 
fied by  its  tendency  to  keep  boys  at  school 
till  the  age  of  seventeen  or  eighteen.  Keep- 
ing the  boys  at  school  till  that  age  would 
give  us  intelligent  citizens.  It  would  raise 
immensely  the  general  intelligence  of  the 
people. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.     109 


IV. 

The  late  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Mr. 
Teller,  is  reported  to  have  said  that  if  all  the 
Indian  children  could  have  the  moderate  edu- 
cation which  is  given  to  only  a  few  of  them 
at  Carlisle  Barracks  there  would  never  be 
another  Indian  war.  Leaving  out  of  view 
all  considerations  of  humanity,  how  much 
cheaper  it  would  be  to  educate  the  Indians 
than  it  is  to  shoot  them.  It  costs  about 
$1,000  to  train  an  Indian.  It  costs  the  lives 
of  ten  white  men  and  thousands  of  dollars  to 
shoot  one. 

If  all  the  Mormon  children  could  have  a 
complete  high-school  education  there  would 
soon  be  an  end  of  polygamous  Mormonism. 
Do  you  think  the  graduates  of  a  high  school 
would  become  plural  wives  ?  Polygamy  is 
possible  only  with  extremely  ignorant  women. 
Rarely  do  any  but  the  the  most  ignorant 
women  found  in  this  country  become  Mor- 
mons, and  Mormonism  is  recruited  most 
readily  from  European  peasant  women,  be- 
cause to  them  even  the  polygamy  of  Utah  is 
a  promotion. 


1 10  HIGHER   GROUND. 

If  all  the  children  in  the  land  could  have 
a  complete  high-school  education  there  would 
be  far  less  drunkenness  than  there  is.  The 
average  man  drinks  in  proportion  to  his  igno- 
rance. The  savage  drinks  all  he  can  get.  In 
drinking,  the  ignorant  man  in  civilized  life 
follows  closely  upon  the  heels  of  the  savage. 
Intelligence  develops  tastes  for  better  things, 
which  conquer  the  brutal  appetite  for  strong 
drink. 

This  is  a  government  by  school-masters. 
If  we  had  fewer  school-masters  we  should  be 
forced  to  have  more  policemen  and  more  sol- 
diers. It  is  wiser,  safer,  better,  and  cheaper 
to  train  good  citizens  than  it  is  to  shoot  bad 
ones. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      Ill 


V. 

Benjamin  Franklin  said  :  "  Empty  your 
purse  into  your  head  ;  then  you  can  never 
lose  your  money,  and  you  will  always  be  sure 
of  a  high  rate  of  interest." 

Thomas  Jefferson  said  :  "  If  a  nation  ex- 
pects to  be  ignorant  and  free  in  a  state  of 
civilization,  it  expects  what  never  was  and 
never  will  be." 

"  Promote,"  said  George  Washington,  "  as 
an  object  of  prime  importance,  institutions  for 
the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge." 

I  firmly  believe  that  the  American  people 
are  ready  to  support  a  higher  education.  To 
do  it  is  the  interest  of  everybody.  Commerce 
and  industry  profit  by  every  step  in  the  eleva- 
tion of  man.  Where  men  are  ignorant  and 
unskilled  there  is  no  commerce.  The  savage 
is  not  commercial.  He  is  a  poor  customer. 
He  has  nothing  to  sell,  and  therefore  he  can 
buy  nothing.  The  unskilled  ignorant  laborer 
in  a  civilized  country  is  likewise  a  poor  cus- 
tomer. He  can  earn  but  little,  and  therefore 
he  can  buy  but  little.  The  higher  men  rise 


112  HIGHER   GROUND. 

in  skill  and  intelligence,  the  better  custom- 
ers they  are.  With  every  step  in  the  eleva- 
tion of  man  commerce  and  industry  increase. 
Commerce  and  industry  therefore  favor  the 
highest  possible  elevation  of  all  men. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      113 


VI. 


The  Manual  Training  School  teaches  no 
particular  trade.  It  teaches  the  rudiments  of 
all  the  trades.  At  first  blush  it  would  seem 
impossible  to  teach  a  boy  in  three  years,  two 
hours  each  school-day,  the  rudiments  of  all 
the  trades.  The  difficulty  is  smaller  than  it 
seems.  There  are  only  seven  hand  tools: 
the  axe,  the  saw,  the  plane,  the  hammer,  the 
square,  the  chisel,  and  the  file.  The  graduate 
of  a  manual  training  school  has  not  learned 
a  particular  trade,  but  he  is  within  from  one 
to  three  months  of  knowing,  quite  as  thor- 
oughly as  an  apprentice  who  has  served  years, 
any  one  of  twenty  trades  to  which  he  may 
choose  to  turn.  Having  learned  the  use  of  all 
the  tools,  he  can  easily  turn  to  any  modifica- 
tion of  them  which  he  may  need  in  any  em- 
ployment. He  is  a  superior  draughtsman. 
He  has  an  intelligence  far  beyond  that  of  the 
average  artisan,  and  the  three  years'  appren- 
tice is  in  no  wise  to  be  compared  with  him. 
If  thrown  out  of  one  employment  by  the 
invention  of  a  machine,  the  graduate  of  a 
manual  training  school  can  easily  turn  to  any 
8 


114  HIGHER   GROUND. 

other  employment.  The  boy  who  has  learned 
the  use  of  all  the  tools  has  found  out  his  bias, 
if  he  has  any,  and  he  can  then  go  in  the  di- 
rection in  which  he  is  at  his  best.  He  need 
not  go  all  through  life  working  at  a  trade  for 
which  he  is  ill-fitted.  The  intelligence  and 
diversity  of  skill  acquired  in  the  manual  train- 
ing school  make  the  boy  a  superior  workman 
in  any  employment. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.     115 


VII. 

The  apprentice  system  was  the  old  method 
for  training  skilled  artisans,  but  steam  has 
put  an  end  to  it.  In  a  shop  where  steam  is 
used  it  costs  too  much  to  make  the  wheels  go 
round  to  permit  an  unskilled  apprentice  to 
use  the  tools.  Nobody  but  a  skilled  workman 
can  be  permitted  to  use  the  money-eating 
tools  driven  by  steam.  Steam  has  killed  the 
apprentice  system.  There  is  no  place  where 
an  American  boy  can  learn  a  trade  except  the 
penitentiary. 

The  Manual  Training  School  fills  the  place 
of  the  apprentice  system.  It  much  more  than 
fills  the  place.  It  fills  the  place  of  the  appren- 
tice system  as  the  locomotive  fills  the  place 
of  the  stage-coach.  In  other  words,  the  Man- 
ual Training  School  fills  the  place  of  the 
apprentice  system  a  thousand  times  over. 
The  apprentice  in  a  shop  is  a  hewer  of  wood 
and  a  drawer  of  water,  the  last  and  least 
important  individual  in  the  shop.  In  the 
Manual  Training  School,  on  the  contrary,  the 
boy  is  the  most  important  individual.  He  is 
the  object  for  which  the  school  exists.  He 


Il6  HIGHER   GROUND. 

is  the  material  that  is  to  be  finished.  Instead 
of  being  left  to  himself  to  pick  up  what  he 
can,  competent  and  intelligent  instructors  de- 
vote themselves  to  his  training.  The  boy,  as 
an  apprentice,  exists  for  the  benefit  of  the 
shop.  When  the  boy  is  a  scholar  in  a  man- 
ual training  school,  the  shop  exists  for  his 
benefit. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      \\J 


VIII. 

Mr.  Foley,  who  was  for  many  years  an 
instructor  of  forging,  vise-work  and  machine- 
tool-work  in  the  Boston  Mechanic  Art  School, 
before  becoming  an  instructor  had  served 
an  apprenticeship  of  seven  years,  and  had 
worked  at  his  trade  for  several  years.  Mr. 
Foley  has  seen  and  tried  both  methods  and 
knows  whereof  he  speaks.  He  says  :  "  It  ap- 
pears like  throwing  away  two  or  three  years 
of  one's  life  to  spend  them  in  attaining  a 
knowledge  of  a  business  that  can  be  acquired 
by  a  proper  course  of  instruction  in  sixty 
days,  two  hours  each  day.  The  dexterity 
that  comes  from  practice  can  be  reached  as 
quickly  after  the  one  hundred  and  twenty 
hours'  instruction  as  after  two  or  more  years 
spent  as  an  apprentice  under  the  adverse 
circumstances  of  ordinary  apprenticeship." 

The  wonder  is,  not  that  boys  so  quickly 
learn  the  use  of  tools  in  a  manual  training 
school  under  competent  instructors,  but  see- 
ing how  easily  they  learn,  the  wonder  is  that 
anybody  should  ever  have  undertaken  to  learn 
the  use  of  tools  in  any  other  way. 


Il8  HIGHER   GROUND. 

The  Manual  Training  School  has  come,  and 
it  has  come  to  stay.  For  purposes  both  of 
education  and  of  industry  we  shall  abandon 
the  manual  training  school  method  when  we 
abandon  the  locomotive  and  go  back  to  the 
stage  coach. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.     \  19 


IX. 


The  drudgery  of  the  apprentice  tends  to 
stupefy  him.  All  work  and  no  play  makes 
Jack  a  dull  boy.  While  the  manual  training 
requires  as  close  attention  as  any  study,  it 
is  nevertheless  so  complete  a  change  from 
studying  a  book  that  in  the  midst  of  study  it 
is  in  the  nature  of  diversion  and  recreation. 
Was  there  ever  a  boy  who  did  not  delight  in 
tools  ?  Last  year  the  boys  in  the  Chicago 
Manual  Training  School  asked  for  a  holiday 
Washington's  birthday,  and  having  obtained 
it,  they  immediately  asked  for  permission  to 
spend  their  holiday  in  the  carpenter-shop  of 
the  school. 

Of  course  nothing  can  make  a  bright  boy 
out  of  a  dull  boy,  but  there  are  bright  boys 
not  easily  kept  down  to  study  who  gladly 
swallow  the  bitter  pill  of  study  by  reason  of 
the  delight  which  they  take  in  the  manual 
training.  The  editor-in-chief  of  one  of  the 
St.  Louis  daily  papers  told  me  some  time  ago 
that  he  had  never  been  able  to  keep  his  boy 
in  any  school  until  he  sent  him  to  the  St. 
Louis  Manual  Training  School,  but  that  now 


120  HIGHER   GROUND. 

the  boy  cannot  be  kept  away,  and  wishes  that 
school  kept  Saturday  and  Sunday.  It  may 
be  said  with  truth,  both  of  bright  boys  and 
of  dull  boys,  that  the  Manual  Training  School 
has  a  wider  reach  of  allurement  for  their  fac- 
ulties than  any  other  school  hitherto  known. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      121 


X. 

There  are  people  who  are  afraid  that  if  a 
boy  learns  the  use  of  tools  he  must  necessa- 
rily be  a  mechanic,  and  can  never  rise  in  the 
world.  The  very  first  condition  for  rising  in 
the  world  is  knowledge  of  some  sort.  Many 
men  are  kept  down  in  the  world  by  ignorance 
and  want  of  skill,  but  I  have  never  yet  seen 
any  man  or  heard  of  any  man  who  was  kept 
down  by  knowledge  and  skill. 

We  are  asked,  "  Shall  we  train  five  hun- 
dred thousand  mechanics  where  only  fifty 
thousand  can  find  employment  ? "  The  an- 
swer is,  that  the  education  of  the  Manual 
Training  School  is  not  a  mere  training  of 
mechanics^  The  Manual  Training  School 
educates  boys,  not  to  become  mechanics,  but 
to  become  men  of  intelligence  and  skill.  It 
educates  them  so  that  they  may  have  open  to 
them  a  wider  field  of  employment  than  they 
could  have  in  any  other  way.  It  educates 
them  so  that  they  may  have  open  to  them  all 
employments.  Is  there  a  farmer  who  would 
not  be  a  better  farmer  with  this  training  ?  Is 
there  a  physician  who  would  not  be  a  better 


122  HIGHER   GROUND. 

physician  with  it  ?  Is  there  a  lawyer  who 
would  not  be  a  better  lawyer  with  it  ?  Is 
there  any  man,  rich  or  poor,  engaged  in  any 
pursuit  to  whom  this  training  would  not  be 
an  advantage  ?  The  education  of  the  Manual 
Training  School  will  be  just  as  serviceable 
for  the  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  schol- 
ars who  are  not  to  be  mechanics  as  it  will 
be  for  the  fifty  thousand  who  are  to  be 
mechanics. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL. 


XL 

We  are  told  that  in  our  education  we  must 
emphasize  the  man  and  not  the  mechanic. 
Which  plan  puts  the  greater  emphasis  on  the 
man,  —  the  plan  which  educates  the  young 
only  by  means  of  books,  or  the  plan  which 
gives  them  an  equal  knowledge  of  books  and 
a  wide  range  of  practical  skill  besides  ? 

We  are  told  that  the  practical  education  is 
not  of  the  hand  to  skill,  but  of  the  brain  to 
directive  intelligence.  Which  plan  is  likely 
to  produce  the  greater  degree  of  intelligence, 
—  the  plan  under  the  operation  of  which  the 
children  drop  out  of  school  at  the  age  of  ten 
or  twelve,  only  a  very  few  reaching  the  high 
school,  or  the  manual  training  plan,  which 
would  keep  the  children  at  school  through  all 
the  grades,  and  get  them  into  and  through 
the  high  school  ?  Manual  training  never 
means  less  education  or  less  intelligence. 
Manual  training  always  means  more  educa- 
tion and  more  intelligence. 


124  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XII. 

The  skill  acquired  in  the  Manual  Training 
School  is  so  valuable  that  it  is  not  necessary 
to  show  that  the  mental  progress  of  the  scholar 
is  as  great  as  if  he  devoted  all  his  time  to 
books.  But  those  who  should  know  say  that 
the  mental  progress  is  as  great  as  if  all  the 
time  were  devoted  to  the  study  of  books. 
There  is  nothing  absurd  in  supposing  that  four 
and  a  half  hours  of  mental  work  and  two 
hours  of  manual  training  may  produce  quite 
as  good  mental  results  as  six  and  a  half  hours 
of  continuous  book  study.  Surely  no  one  will 
question  that  the  mental  training  must  help 
the  manual  training.  I  see  as  little  reason  to 
doubt  that  the  manual  may  help  the  mental 
training.  In  the  manual  training  school  there 
is  not  a  word  spoken  or  a  thing  done  except 
with  a  view  to  education.  Mr.  Goss,  of  Pur- 
due University,  Indiana,  well  says  that  manual 
training  is  mental  training  by  hand  practice. 
He  says  that  he  considers  an  hour  in  the  shop 
as  valuable  for  intellectual  training  as  an  hour 
of  book  study,  and  two  hours  in  the  shop  as 
valuable  as  two  hours  of  study. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      12$ 


XIII. 

Dr.  Belfield,  of  the  Chicago  Manual  Training 
School,  says  :  "  My  opinion  is  that  an  hour  in 
the  shop  of  a  well-conducted  manual  training 
school  develops  as  much  mental  strength  as 
an  hour  devoted  to  Virgil  or  Legendre.  I 
am  satisfied  that  three  years  of  a  manual 
training  school  will  give  at  least  as  much 
purely  intellectual  growth  as  three  years 
in  the  ordinary  high  school,  because  every 
school-hour,  whether  spent  in  the  class-room, 
the  drawing-room,  or  the  shop,  is  an  hour 
devoted  to  intellectual  training.  I  am  con- 
vinced that  the  manual  training  school  boy's 
comprehension  of  some  essential  branches  of 
knowledge  will  be  as  far  superior  to  that  of  the 
ordinary  high  school  boy's  as  the  realization 
of  the  grandeur  and  beauty  of  the  Alps  to 
the  man  who  has  seen  their  glories  is  super- 
ior to  the  conception  of  him  who  has  merely 
read  of  them." 

Professor  Woodward,  of  the  St.  Louis  Man- 
ual Training  School,  who  has  had  thirteen 
years'  experience,  says  substantially  the  same 
thing. 


126  HIGHER  GROUND. 

The  testimony  of  all  teachers  who  have  had 
experience  in  manual  training  is  to  the  same 
effect.  Pestalozzi,  Frobel,  and  their  thousands 
of  followers,  and  the  teachers  of  the  thousands 
of  Slojd  Schools  in  Sweden  and  Finland  all 
tell  the  same  story. 

What  manual  training  teachers  say  is  that 
well  on  this  side  of  the  point  where  weariness 
begins  manual  training  is  equal  to  books  for 
producing  mental  growth.  In  a  manual  train- 
ing lesson  of  two  hours  the  average  boy  of 
fourteen  keeps  up  a  lively  interest.  Three 
hours  would  probably  fatigue  him.  Carried 
beyond  the  point  up  to  which  a  lively  interest 
can  be  maintained,  a  lesson  in  manual  train- 
ing is  like  any  other  lesson  given  to  a  fatigued 
scholar,  —  a  mere  waste  of  time. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.     I2/ 


XIV. 

The  wealth  of  a  nation  depends  upon  its 
skill.  Before  the  invention  of  canoes,  fishing 
nets,  bows  and  arrows,  savages  are  uncom- 
fortably and  pitiably  poor.  Without  tools 
with  which  to  get  food  they  are  always  liable 
to  starve.  With  the  invention  of  canoes  and 
nets,  fishing  gives  them  food  and  lessens  their 
liability  to  starve.  With  the  invention  of 
bows  and  arrows,  hunting  gives  them  food, 
and  with  a  little  agriculture  in  addition  they 
become  reasonably  secure  from  starvation. 
Thus  human  comfort  depends  upon  human 
skill.  A  nation  with  little  skill  is  poor.  A 
nation  with  great  skill  is  rich.  Steam  is  the 
principal  tool  of  modern  times,  and  the  nations 
are  getting  rich  in  proportion  to  their  skill  in 
using  it.  England  is  the  foremost  nation  for 
skill  in  using  steam,  and  England  is  the  fore- 
most nation  in  acquiring  wealth.  We  are 
next  to  England  for  skill  in  using  steam,  and 
we  are  next  to  England  in  getting  rich.  There 
are  only  sixty  millions  of  us,  but  steam  does 
the  work  of  probably  two  hundred  millions 
more.  The  result  is  an  increase  of  wealth 


128  HIGHER   GROUND. 

within  our  borders  such  as  the  world  has  never 
before  seen. 

A  Spaniard  or  a  Turk  has  only  one  pair  of 
hands  for  producing  things.  By  means  of 
steam  an  Englishman  has  industrially  ten 
pairs  of  hands.  An  American  in  like  man- 
ner has  ten  pairs  of  hands.  Eventually  skill 
and  intelligence  will  bring  us  for  every  man 
a  hundred  pairs  instead  of  ten  pairs  of  hands. 
Increase  of  skill  is  worth  struggling  for.  Every 
advance  in  skill  increases  the  comfort  of  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  country. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      129 


XV. 

A  hundred  years  ago  nineteen  out  of  every 
twenty  men  in  this  country  were  farmers. 
The  proportion  of  farmers  to  the  whole  popu- 
lation has  decreased  every  day  since ;  it  is 
now  decreasing  every  day.  The  proportion 
of  men  engaged  in  the  industrial  arts  has 
increased  correspondingly,  and  is  now  in- 
creasing every  day. 

As  improvements  multiply  in  agricultural 
machinery,  a  greater  number  of  men  can  go 
into  industrial  pursuits  and  still  leave  the  sup- 
ply of  food  ample.  The  McCormick  reaper 
alone  has  liberated  from  farming  millions  of 
men.  There  is  only  just  so  much  use  for  ag- 
ricultural products.  When  a  man  has  had 
enough  bread  he  does  not  wish  any  more. 
Enough  is  enough.  Industrial  products,  on 
the  contrary,  are  unlike  bread,  of  which 
enough  is  enough.  Of  industrial  products  we 
want  all  those  that  we  know  of,  we  want  all 
those  that  we  have  heard  of,  and  we  want  all 
those  that  we  have  never  seen  and  never 
heard  of  as  fast  as  they  can  be  invented. 
Alexander  the  Great  never  craved  a  fine 
9 


130  HIGHER   GROUND. 

watch,  simply  because  watches  were  not  then 
in  existence.  Had  they  existed,  Alexander 
would  have  wanted  the  very  best  watch  that 
could  be  made.  Our  great-grandmothers  never 
felt  the  need  of  sewing-machines,  simply  be- 
cause to  them  sewing-machines  were  incon- 
ceivable. Thirty  years  ago  we  never  thought 
of  riding  in  sleeping-cars,  because  there  were 
none.  A  valuable  invention,  as  soon  as  it 
is  known,  becomes  an  article  of  pressing 
necessity.  We  can  never  get  a  sufficient 
variety  of  industrial  products.  Our  industrial 
wants  are  bounded  only  by  the  limits  to 
human  invention. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      131 


XVI. 

The  destinies  of  the  ancient  world  were 
moulded  by  soldiers  and  war.  The  ancient 
world  came  to  an  end  and  the  modern  world 
began  with  the  steam-engine.  The  destinies 
of  the  modern  world  are  moulded  by  me- 
chanics and  machinery.  Our  nation  of  sixty 
millions  is  the  offspring  of  the  steam-engine. 
Only  by  means  of  steam  could  the  many  mil- 
lions have  been  carried  across  the  Atlantic 
and  scattered  all  over  the  land. 

The  representative  man  of  the  ancient 
world  was  the  proud,  fierce  warrior,  steel- 
clad,  sabred,  booted,  and  spurred,  who  made 
of  the  average  man  a  cripple  or  a  corpse.  The 
representative  man  of  to-day  is  the  fustian- 
clad,  humble,  greasy  mechanic,  who  makes 
this  a  comfortable  world  to  live  in.  To  the 
proud  warrior  belongs  the  dead  past,  with  all 
its  exploded  stupidities.  To  the  humble  arti- 
san belongs  the  great  future,  with  all  the  hopes 
of  humanity.  The  humble  artisan  will  yet  in- 
vent a  machine  that  shall  do  all  the  work  of 
the  world  while  he  sits  by  with  his  hand  on 
the  valve  reading  his  newspaper. 


132  HIGHER  GROUND. 


XVII. 

Skill  with  small  intelligence  increases  very 
slowly.  Skill  coupled  with  great  intelligence, 
like  any  other  large  capital,  increases  very 
rapidly.  A  century  makes  very  little  differ- 
ence in  the  skill  of  a  tribe  of  Indians.  Their 
intelligence  is  too  limited.  But  look  at  the 
amazing  increase  of  our  skill  during  the 
last  hundred  years.  What  an  increase  of 
skill  there  would  be  if  henceforth  all  the  chil- 
dren could  be  educated  in  manual  training 
schools  !  During  our  war  no  man  of  sense 
wanted  one  of  our  armies  to  be  commanded 
by  a  volunteer.  From  first  to  last,  on  both 
sides,  the  West-Pointers  stood  at  the  head. 
What  West  Point  is  to  the  army,  the  Manual 
Training  School  will  become  to  industry,  — 
and  more,  because  it  will  train  not  only  the  of- 
ficers of  industry,  but  likewise  the  rank  and 
file.  When  this  shall  come  to  pass  there  will 
be  no  more  tariff  agitation  in  this  country, 
because  the  skill  developed  will  of  itself  for- 
ever put  an  end  to  all  foreign  competition 
upon  American  soil. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      133 


XVIII. 

Am  I  over-stating  the  effect  upon  indus- 
try of  manual  training  ?  It  cannot  be  over- 
stated. Thirty  years  ago  the  French  bought 
all  their  cotton  goods  in  England.  They  then 
bought  English  machinery,  brought  over  Eng- 
lish workmen  to  run  it,  established  a  training 
school  for  the  cotton  industry  at  Miilhouse, 
and  now  the  finest  cotton  goods  used  in  Eng- 
land and  in  this  country  are  made  in  France. 
To  sixpence  worth  of  cotton  the  French  add 
so  much  skilled  labor  that  we  pay  them  a 
dollar  for  it.  They  buy  of  us  the  raw  ma- 
terial, and  sell  us  back  the  finished  product. 
To  use  the  time-honored  illustration,  they  buy 
of  us  the  hide  for  a  sixpence  and  sell  us  back 
the  tail  for  a  shilling.  In  like  manner  has 
France  obtained  control  of  her  own  market  for 
watches  by  establishing  schools  for  the  watch 
industry  at  Besanc/m  and  elsewhere.  There 
are  trade  schools  in  every  large  city  of  France ; 
nearly  every  industry  has  its  special  schools  ; 
and  these  schools  are  increasing,  not  only  in 
France,  but  all  over  Europe.  In  fact,  within 
the  last  ten  years  the  Germans  have  been 
gaining  upon  the  French  by  means  of  techni- 
cal schools. 


134  HIGHER  GROUND, 


XIX. 

The  Manual  Training  School  reverses  the 
cry  that  to  compete  in  the  markets  of  the 
world  our  labor  must  come  down.  The 
Manual  Training  School  says,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  workingmen  must  go  up  higher. 
The  meaning  and  intention  of  the  Manual 
Training  School  movement  are  that  working- 
men  shall  become  more  intelligent,  more  skil- 
ful, do  better  work,  and  earn  more  money. 
The  Manual  Training  School  preaches  the 
gospel  of  the  blue  ribbon.  Mr.  Perrot,  of 
Switzerland,  came  to  this  country  in  1876  to 
exhibit  his  machinery  for  making  watches- 
Landing  in  New  York,  he  hastened  to  Phila- 
delphia to  secure  a  place  to  show  his  wares. 
He  was  assigned  space  next  to  that  of  the 
Waltham  Watch  Company.  He  took  just 
one  look  at  the  Waltham  machinery,  and  then 
he  telegraphed  to  his  agent  in  New  York  not 
to  permit  his  own  machinery  to  be  landed,  but 
to  send  it  back  to  Europe  by  the  ship  in 
which  it  had  come.  In  the  autumn  Mr.  Per- 
rot went  back  to  Switzerland  and  told  his 
countrymen  that  American  workmen  earned 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      135 

three  times  as  much  as  Swiss  workmen,  but 
that  by  reason  of  the  intelligence  and  skill  of 
American  workmen,  they  were  well  worth 
their  triple  wages,  and  that,  high  as  were 
their  wages,  Switzerland  could  never  again 
hope  to  sell  watches  in  the  American  market. 
We  could  not,  if  we  would,  compete  in  making 
labor  come  down.  Europe  can  easily  beat  us 
at  that.  The  downward  competition  is  not 
open  to  us.  I  hope  we  shall  never  try  to 
enter  upon  it.  But  with  its  despotisms  and 
its  armies,  its  debts  and  its  ignorance,  Europe 
has  no  chance  in  the  upward  competition. 
We  can,  if  we  will,  raise  the  intelligence  and 
skill  of  American  workingmen,  so  that  our  in- 
dustries shall  be  above  all  competition.  For 
a  nation,  as  well  as  for  an  individual,  there  is 
always  room  higher  up. 


136  HIGHER  GROUND. 


XX. 

Some  time  ago  one  of  my  friends  told  me 
of  a  mill  in  New  England  which  made  muslin 
selling  at  twelve  cents  a  yard.  By  making  it 
of  a  checkered  pattern  at  an  infinitesimally 
additional  expense  it  sold  quite  as  readily  for 
twenty-two  cents.  At  twelve  cents  the  plain 
muslin  had  to  compete  with  the  plain  muslin 
of  the  whole  world.  With  a  little  originality 
of  design  added,  it  stood  alone,  by  itself, 
without  competition.  "  What  do  you  mix 
with  your  colors  ? "  was  asked  of  the  painter. 
"  Brains,"  said  the  master,  "  brains."  The 
more  brains  we  mix  with  our  industry  the 
better  it  pays.  Industry  pays  just  in  propor- 
tion as  it  is  mixed  with  brains. 

Our  industries  are  waiting  for  more  skill. 
They  are  willing  to  pay  and  they  can  afford 
to  pay  any  reasonable  price  for  it.  A  few 
years  ago  we  made  in  this  country  scarcely 
any  carpets ;  now  we  make  so  many  carpets 
that  we  import  scarcely  any.  But  we  still  buy 
abroad  the  higher  grades  of  carpets.  The  car- 
pet industry  fails  as  yet  in  originality  of  design 
and  the  higher  grade  of  workmanship.  Within 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.     137 

the  last  five  years  the  silk  industry  has  tripled 
in  this  country.  But  we  still  buy  abroad  the 
higher  grades  of  silk.  Both  the  carpet  and 
the  silk  industries  are  waiting  for  the  design- 
ers and  fine  workmen  who  do  not  yet  exist, 
but  whom  the  Manual  Training  School  must 
start  on  their  career. 


138  HIGHER  GROUND. 


XXI. 

The  advantage  in  diversified  employments 
is  like  the  advantage  there  is  in  not  carrying 
all  one's  eggs  in  one  basket.  Skill  breeds 
diversity  of  employment,  and  the  more  diver- 
sity of  employment  there  is,  the  fewer  will 
there  be  of  strikes  and  lockouts.  If  the  men 
who  are  now  engaged  in  making  carpets  and 
silks  were  still  engaged  in  making  cotton 
cloth,  there  would  be  an  immediate  over- 
production of  cotton  cloth  and  a  strike  and  a 
lockout.  The  Manual  Training  School  cre- 
ates skill.  Skill  increases  and  multiplies  and 
produces  diversity  of  employment.  Diversity 
of  employment  prevents  strikes  and  lockouts. 
The  Manual  Training  School  does  not  train 
mere  mechanics.  The  mere  mechanic  is  a 
man  with  only  one  skill.  Any  day  a  machine 
may  come  and  do  the  only  thing  he  can  do. 
When  the  mechanic's  one  employment  fails 
him  he  is  helpless.  Not  so  with  the  boy  edu- 
cated in  the  Manual  Training  School.  Help- 
lessness is  not  in  his  vocabulary.  He  has 
learned  to  think  and  he  has  learned  to  put  his 
thoughts  into  things.  His  brain  has  learned 


THE  MANUAL   TRAINING  SCHOOL.     139 

to  plan,  and  his  hands  have  learned  to  do 
what  his  brain  plans.  He  has  learned  that 
things  will  yield,  and  he  has  learned  how 
to  make  them  yield.  His  intelligence  and 
his  skill  fill  him  with  power.  He  has  ac- 
quired so  much  power  that  he  will  be  his 
own  master.  He  will  never  need  to  strike, 
and  he  will  never  be  locked  out.  Of  the 
kind  who  strike  and  who  can  be  locked  out, 
there  are  always  too  many  in  the  world.  Of 
the  manual  training  school  boy's  kind  there 
are  never  enough.  By  applying  his  brains 
and  his  eyes  and  his  hands  to  books,  to  tools, 
to  wood  and  to  iron,  he  has  mastered  the 
great  lesson  of  power. 


140  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXII. 

So  far  as  human  problems  are  solvable,  they 
are  solvable  by  intelligence  and  skill.  One 
thousand  manual  training  schools  in  the  land 
would  not  only  do  away  with  strikes  and  lock- 
outs, but  they  would  solve  the  whole  capital 
and  labor  problem.  "  Communism  might  solve 
the  capital  and  labor  question  for  a  week  or 
a  month  or  a  year  and  then  we  should  have 
the  same  problem  back  again.  But  the  Manual 
Training  Schools  would  solve  the  capital  and 
labor  problem  permanently  by  doing  away 
with  it.  For  the  boys  educated  in  the  Manual 
Training  School  there  will  be  no  capital  and 
labor  problem.  Wherever  they  go  they  will 
be  able  to  achieve  for  themselves  their  due 
share  of  the  good  things  of  this  world.  What 
we  need  to  solve  the  problem,  is  not  a  com- 
munistic distribution  of  property,  which  would 
not  do  it ;  but  what  we  must  have  to  solve  the 
capital  and  labor  problem  effectually  and  per- 
manently is  the  greatest  possible  distribution 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      141 

of  individual  power  and  individual  ability  to 
acquire  property.  The  greater  the  number 
of  men  who  have  property  of  their  own,  the 
smaller  will  be  the  number  of  men  who  will 
wish  to  divide  things." 


142  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXIII. 

It  is  said  that  we  cannot  have  manual  train- 
ing in  the  high  school  until  we  can  offer  equal 
advantages  to  boys  and  girls.  If  it  were  the 
rule  in  this  world,  that  nobody  is  to  be  com- 
fortable until  everybody  can  be  comfortable, 
nobody  would  ever  be  comfortable.  The 
Manual  Training  School  will  eventually  be  as 
serviceable  for  girls  as  it  is  for  boys.  I  think 
it  will  be  thus  serviceable  for  girls  the  very 
moment  manual  training  is  put  into  the  high 
school.  Women  wisely  do  not  always  choose 
to  stay  within  the  limits  men  make  for  them. 
Being  themselves  chiefly  interested,  they  pre- 
fer to  try  things  for  themselves.  In  Paris 
many  women  are  now  studying  architecture. 
Many  girls  will  be  glad  to  avail  themselves  of 
all  the  instruction  in  drawing  in  the  Manual 
Training  School,  and  for  their  benefit  the  course 
in  drawing  may  be  extended.  Many  girls  will 
undertake  the  course  in  wood-work  as  it  is 
now,  and  for  their  benefit  wood-carving  may 
be  immediately  introduced.  Nor  must  we 
forget  that  the  average  woman  marries  a  man. 
Women  have  every  reason  to  wish  that  the 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      143 

average  man  may  become  more  intelligent, 
more  skilful,  and  more  efficient.  The  women 
who  are  not  to  marry  and  who  have  their  own 
way  to  make  in  the  world  have  every  reason 
to  wish  that  the  boys  now  growing  up  may 
qualify  themselves  for  more  virile  employments 
than  those  of  dry-goods  clerks,  notaries  public, 
bookkeepers  and  the  like,  which  should  long 
ago  have  been  in  the  hands  of  women.  Men 
and  women  are  equally  interested  in  putting 
manual  training  into  the  high  school. 


144  HIGHER   GROUND, 


XXIV. 

Can  we  afford  to  give  to  all  the  education 
of  the  Manual  Training  School  at  public  ex- 
pense ?  Training  the  young  is  the  best  in- 
vestment that  can  be  made.  Bring  up  a  boy 
in  a  hovel  in  Ireland  and  he  will  grow  up  to 
come  over  here  to  dig  and  shovel  at  a  dollar 
a  day.  His  son,  born  in  Chicago,  takes  in  the 
spelling-book  and  some  mechanical  skill,  and 
earns  two  dollars  a  day.  The  shoveller's 
grandson  may  go  to  the  Chicago  Manual ' 
Training  School  and  thereafter  earn  from 
three  to  five  dollars  and  upwards  indefinitely, 
according  to  his  capacity.  The  raw  material 
capable  of  the  greatest  possible  improvement 
is  human  raw  material.  The  raw  material 
that  yields  the  greatest  possible  profit  in 
being  improved  is  human  raw  material. 
European  nations  spend  millions  in  training 
their  young  men  for  war.  We  could  well 
afford  to  spend  equal  millions  in  training  our 
young  men  for  peace.  Rather  than  do  with- 
out the  intelligence  and  efficiency  which  man- 
ual training  schools  would  bring  us,  we  could 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.     145 

well  afford,  not  only  to  establish  the  schools 
at  public  expense,  but  we  could  afford  besides 
to  pay  to  every  scholar  in  them  a  salary  to 
support  him,  as  we  do  to  every  cadet  at  West 
Point. 


10 


146  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXV. 

The  only  objection  that  can  be  made  to  giv- 
ing every  child  in  the  land  the  manual  train- 
ing school  education  is  the  expense.  The 
answer  to  the  objection  of  expense  is  that  the 
education  will  bring  us  in  return  a  hundred 
fold  for  every  dollar  we  spend.  Instead  of 
impoverishing  us,  this  education  is  precisely 
what  will  bring  us  wealth.  When  we  come  to 
understand  how  well  it  will  pay  in  money  to 
give  every  child  the  manual  training  school 
education,  instead  of  doing  it  with  reluctance, 
we  shall  do  it  with  alacrity.  This  nation  is  in 
the  very  depths  of  poverty  compared  to  what 
it  would  be  if  every  child  in  the  land  were 
educated  in  the  Manual  Training  School. 

Stanley  says  that  there  are  forty  millions  of 
people  on  the  Congo,  all  of  them  naked  and 
poor.  He  says  that  the  country  in  which 
they  live  is  one  of  endless  natural  wealth.  In 
the  midst  of  all  this  wealth,  the  Africans  are 
in  the  depths  of  poverty,  simply  because  they 
are  ignorant. 

This  country,  with  all  its  immense  resources 
was  once  in  the  complete  possession  of  the 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.     147 

Indians.  The  Indians  did  not  get  rich.  They 
were  not  even  comfortable.  They  starved 
and  froze  to  death,  simply  because  they  did 
not  know  anything.  We  took  their  inheri- 
tance and  with  what  little  we  know,  see  what 
we  have  done. 

It  is  not  in  what  is  in  the  earth,  nor  in  the 
material  things  that  are  on  the  earth  that  the 
wealth  of  a  nation  lies.  It  is  in  the  training 
of  the  brains  of  the  people ;  it  is  in  the  in- 
telligence of  the"  people  that  the  wealth  of  a 
nation  lies. 


148  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXVI. 

Ignorance  and  discomfort  go  together.  In- 
telligence and  comfort  go  together.  With 
increase  of  intelligence  comes  increase  of 
comfort. 

Only  a  few  centuries  ago  nearly  everybody 
was  ignorant  and  nearly  everybody  was  poor 
and  uncomfortable.  Only  the  very  few  were 
comfortable.  Comfort  was  the  exception. 
Hunger  and  nakedness  were  the  rule.  The 
sun  shone  then  as  brightly  as  it  does  now  and 
the  earth  was  as  teeming  and  fruitful  then  as 
it  is  now.  Our  ancestors  got  less  out  of  the 
earth  than  we  do,  because  they  knew  less  than 
we  do.  We  get  more  out  of  the  earth  than 
they  did,  because  we  know  more  than  they 
did. 

The  way  comfort  has  increased  with  intelli- 
gence proves  that  there  is  in  this  world  an 
abundance  for  all  who  are  fitted  to  get  their 
share.  One  reason  that  so  many  people  are 
uncomfortable  is  that  they  are  not  fitted  by 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      149 

their  training  to  get  their  share  of  the  good 
things  of  this  world.  With  better  training 
we  should  have  a  more  comfortable  world. 
With  each  step  towards  better  training,  we 
shall  have  a  more  comfortable  world. 


150  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXVII. 

To  leave  the  great  mass  of  the  people  in 
ignorance  is  to  leave  them  in  hopeless  poverty. 
To  educate  all  is  substantially  to  give  equal 
opportunities  to  all.  To  educate  all  is  to  give 
comfort  and  prosperity  to  all. 

The  education  of  the  Manual  Training 
School,  so  eminently  adapted  to  the  young,  no 
matter  what  they  are  to  do  in  life,  we  must  give 
to  every  child.  Not  only  must  the  Manual 
Training  School  be  open  to  every  child,  but 
every  child  must  have  the  benefit  of  it.  Here- 
tofore in  this  country  the  aim  has  been  to 
educate  up  to  a  certain  point  all  the  children. 
But  the  aim  has  been  to  give  them  as  little 
education  as  the  children  could  get  along  with. 
We  must  change  this  and  give  to  every  child 
all  the  education  the  child  can  take  and  all 
we  know  how  to  give. 

If  our  American  civilization  means  anything, 
it  means  that  the  time  shall  surely  come  when, 
no  matter  what  it  costs  to  educate  him,  no 
child  shall  be  left  to  grow  up  in  ignorance. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      151 

If  our  American  civilization  means  anything 
over  and  above  and  distinct  from  other  civili- 
zations, it  means  that  the  earth  and  the  good 
things  of  the  earth  are  the  heritage,  not  of 
the  few,  but  of  the  many. 


1 52  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXVIII. 

To  give  to  every  child  in  the  land  the  man- 
ual training  school  education  is  not  as  wild  a 
scheme  for  us,  considering  our  means,  as  it 
was  for  the  puritan  Pilgrims  with  their  slen- 
der means  to  keep  every  child  at  school ;  and 
that  is  what  they  did  when  New  England  was 
yet  a  wilderness  and  in  the  depths  of  poverty. 
This  is  the  law  under  which  they  did  it : 
"Every  township,  after  the  Lord  hath  increased 
them  to  the  number  of  fifty  householders,  shall 
appoint  one  to  teach  all  the  children  to  write 
and  read ;  and  when  any  town  shall  increase 
to  the  number  of  a  hundred  families,  they 
shall  set  up  a  grammar-school."  High  above 
that  of  princes  and  kings  and  fighters  of  bat- 
tles, towers  the  fame  of  those  grim  old  Puri- 
tans, and  forevermore  it  shall  increase  and 
grow  brighter. 

Green,  the  English  historian,  says  that  in 
the  midst  of  the  eighteenth  century  New 
England  was  the  one  part  of  the  world  where 
every  man  and  woman  was  able  to  read  and 
write.  Has  the  common  school  of  New  Eng- 
land paid  for  itself?  For  answer  look  at  the 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      153 

wealth  of  New  England.  If  to-day  the  wealth 
of  New  England  were  in  silver  dollars,  the 
silver  dollars  would  almost  outweigh  the  rocks 
of  New  England. 

The  advent  of  the  Manual  Training  School 
marks  an  epoch  in  our  history.  Like  the 
Common  School,  the  Manual  Training  School 
is  an  institution  which  the  many  will  not  per- 
mit the  few  to  appropriate.  It  has  in  it  that 
which  will  not  only  make  permanent  the  in- 
stitutions we  all  love,  but  it  has  in  it  that  which 
will  eventually  produce  the  American  ideal, — 
a  nation  without  an  ignorant  man  and  without 
a  pauper. 


I 


154  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXIX. 

The  individual  requires  intelligence  to  hold 
his  own  in  the  world,  and  our  government 
requires  intelligence  not  only  in  the  few  but 
in  the  many.  Having  solved  the  problem  of 
managing  a  State  without  a  king  at  the  top, 
we  now  find  that  the  ignorant  man  at  the 
bottom  of  the  State  is  almost  as  much  of  a 
nuisance  as  was  the  king.  We  find  that  we 
are  governed  by  the  ignorant  man  quite  as 
much  as  we  are  by  the  intelligent  man ;  and 
rather  more,  because  the  ignorant  man  likes 
to  govern  us,  and  he  is  willing  and  can  afford 
to  devote  all  his  time  and  attention  to  it. 

Our  problem  is  at  all  hazards  to  get  rid  of 
the  ignorant  man.  The  most  ignorant  man 
in  the  State  has  a  vote  that  counts  for  as 
much  as  the  vote  of  the  most  intelligent  man. 
What  the  most  intelligent  man  in  the  State 
wants  to  accomplish  for  the  good  of  every- 
body cannot  be  done  until  a  sufficient  number 
of  ignorant  men  are  convinced  that  it  will  not 
hurt  them ;  because  not  until  they  are  con- 
vinced can  a  majority  be  got  to  vote  for  it. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      155 

As  the  strength  of  the  chain  is  only  equal 
to  that  of  its  weakest  link,  so  the  action  of  the 
government  is  constantly  kept  down  towards 
the  level  of  the  most  ignorant  man  in  the 
State.  I  would  not  on  that  account  deprive 
the  ignorant  man  of  his  vote.  Deprived  of 
his  vote  he  would  be  a  man  with  a  just  griev- 
ance. In  comparison  with  him,  all  the  other 
people  in  the  State  would  be  a  privileged 
class.  No,  I  would  not  deprive  the  ignorant 
man  of  his  vote.  But  I  would  so  arrange 
things  that  his  boys  and  girls  should  be  sure 
to  get  the  benefit  of  the  Manual  Training 
School.  As  to  the  ignorant  man  himself, 
eventually  he  would  die,  and  under  the  cir- 
cumstances his  kind  would  die  out. 


156  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXX. 

The  great  advantage  of  self-government  for 
which  it  is  to  be  prized  above  all  others  is 
that  it  is  a  government  of  peace.  The  rule 
of  the  people  means  peace.  The  many  are 
for  peace  and  against  war,  because  upon  them 
war  piles  all  its  burdens  and  all  its  sufferings. 
On  the  contrary  where  the  few  rule,  the  very 
air  is  always  full  of  war.  The  explanation  is 
easy  enough.  War  benefits  and  aggrandizes 
the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many.  Nobles 
and  princes,  kings  and  potentates  want  fleets, 
and  armies,  conquests  and  glory.  Being  able 
to  do  as  we  like,  having  our  own  affairs  in 
our  own  hands,  knowing  that  if  we  dance,  we 
ourselves  must  pay  the  piper,  we  seek  no  con- 
quests. We  want  no  military  glory.  It  is 
our  aim  to  build  up  ourselves,  not  upon  the 
ruins  of  other  people's  happiness,  but  by  the 
peaceful,  skilful,  and  intelligent  use  of  what 
we  already  own  and  have  within  our  own 
borders.  Never  before  in  the  world  has  there 
been  a  nation  at  once  so  powerful  and  so 
peaceful  as  ours.  What  the  average  Ameri- 
can wants  is  in  peace  and  plenty  to  live  and 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      157 

labor  and  love.  That  we  prize  the  govern- 
ment which  enables  us  to  do  this  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at. 

The  distance  which  our  political  system  is 
ahead  of  even  that  of  England  is  measured 
by  the  fact  that  if  the  two  millions  of  men 
who  have  just  been  enfranchised  in  England 
had  been  on  the  coast  of  New  England  in 
1620,  they  would  then  and  there  have  been 
enfranchised  266  years  ago. 


158  HIGHER   GROUND. 


XXXI. 

Before  landing  at  Plymouth,  the  Pilgrims 
on  the  Mayflower,  in  order  to  avoid  all  possi- 
bility of  lawlessness,  entered  into  an  agree- 
ment amongst  themselves  concerning  the 
manner  in  which  their  settlement  should 
be  governed.  In  this  agreement  each  man 
pledged  himself  to  submission  and  obedience 
to  the  laws  that  should  be  made  in  pursuance 
of  it.  The  agreement  reads  like  this  :  — 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  Amen  :  We,  whose 
names  are  under  written,  the  loyal  subjects  of  our 
dread  Sovereign,  King  James,  having  undertaken, 
for  the  glory  of  God  and  advancement  of  the 
Christian  faith,  and  honor  of  our  King  and  coun- 
try, a  voyage  to  plant  the  first  colony  in  the 
Northern  parts  of  Virginia,  do,  by  these  presents, 
solemnly  and  mutually,  in  the  presence  of  God 
and  one  of  another,  covenant  and  combine  our- 
selves together  into  a  civic  body  politic,  for  our 
better  ordering  and  preservation  and  furtherance 
of  the  ends  aforesaid ;  and  by  virtue  hereof,  to 
enact,  constitute,  and  frame  such  just  and  equal 
laws,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions,  and  offices, 
from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      159 

convenient  for  the  general  good  of  the  colony. 
Unto  which  we  promise  all  due  submission  and 
obedience." 

That  agreement  instituted  a  government  of 
the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people. 
It  was  the  beginning  of  self-government  in 
this  country.  It  was  the  beginning  of  self- 
government  in  the  world. 

There  were  forty-one  men  on  board  of 
the  Mayflower,  and  forty-one  men  signed  the 
agreement  for  self-government.  No  man  was 
excluded  because  he  was  ignorant  or  because 
he  was  poor,  or  for  any  other  reason  what- 
ever. That  agreement  is  to-day  the  high- 
water  mark  of  the  world's  statemanship. 
What  Gladstone  is  doing  in  England  now  is 
only  a  feeble  imitation  of  what  the  Pilgrims 
did  on  the  Mayflower. 


160  HIGHER    GROUND. 


XXXII. 

Self-government  was  easily  possible  for  the 
forty-one  men  who  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock, 
because  they  were  intelligent  men.  Had  they 
been  ignorant  men  self-government  would 
have  been  full  of  difficulty  for  them.  Igno- 
rance becomes  lawless  and  riots  under  cir- 
cumstances under  which  intelligence  discusses 
and  convinces  others,  or  is  itself  convinced 
and  holds  its  peace.  Ignorance  is  the  arch 
enemy  of  self-government.  If  self-govern- 
ment is  to  flourish,  ignorance  must  go.  Self- 
government  implies  that  as  all  men  must 
rule,  all  men  must  be  trained  so  as  to  be 
fit  to  rule.  For  its  own  preservation  and  per- 
petuation self-government  requires  the  highest 
possible  elevation  of  all  men.  What  fresh  air 
and  food  are  to  the  human  body  the  school 
and  the  printing-press  are  to  self-government. 
Untrained  brain  power  is  wasted  brain  power, 
and  self-government  cannot  afford  to  let  brain 
power  be  wasted.  Any  boy  on  the  street, 
when  trained,  may  be  a  possible  benefactor 
of  his  race.  Any  boy  on  the  street,  when 
educated,  may  be  a  possible  General  Grant. 


THE  MANUAL    TRAINING  SCHOOL.      l6l 

Self-government  requires  that  all  the  Abra- 
ham Lincolns  be  brought  out  of  the  Ken- 
tucky log-huts  and  set  to  stir  the  high  chords 
in  the  nation's  breast. 

From  Jamestown  and  Plymouth  Rock  down 
to  the  present  moment  the  loftiest  American 
thought  is  that  in  this  country  there  shall  be 
at  the  very  earliest  possible  moment,  free  of 
charge  for  every  child  on  the  soil,  the  highest 
and  best  and  most  practical  training  the  child 
can  take  and  the  world  can  give.  The  dream 
of  commerce  and  industry  is  a  land  full  of 
good  customers.  The  dream  of  patriotism  is 
a  land  full  of  free,  intelligent  and  independent 
citizens.  The  dream  of  poesy  is  a  land  full  of 
smiling,  loving,  happy  homes.  The  dream  of 
commerce  and  industry,  the  dream  of  patriot- 
ism, and  the  dream  of  poesy  are  all  the  same 
dream. 


ii 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


I. 

From  The  Missouri  Republican,  January  i,  1887. 

THE  past  year  will  be  forever  memorable  as  the 
year  in  which  private  armies  of  mercenary  soldiers 
began  to  be  established  in  this  country.  In  Italy 
this  would  have  been  an  old  story ;  in  America  it 
is  quite  a  new  one.  There  for  hundreds  of  years 
cities,  nobles,  prelates,  merchant  princes,  and 
guilds  of  craftsmen,  as  well  as  sovereign  States, 
found  it  expedient,  and,  as  they  thought,  profitable, 
to  have  at  their  command  and  in  their  pay  com- 
panies of  armed  men  whose  trade. was  war,  and 
whose  swords  were  ready  to  be  drawn  in  any  cause 
which  promised  them  the  best  pay.  Public  right 
seemed  to  have  no  competent  arbiter,  and  private 
war  became  inevitable.  The  sequel  was  what 
might  have  been  expected.  The  blood  of  Italy 
was  shed  to  exhaustion  by  the  swords  and  stilettos 
of  her  own  hired  bravos ;  she  became  the  easy 
prey  of  foreign  foes,  and  fell  into  a  state  of  degra- 
dation, which  it  took  the  pen  of  Gladstone  to  de- 
scribe, in  the  good  days  of  King  Bomba.  In  this 
country  it  has  been  fondly  supposed  that  public 


1 66  HIGHER   GROUND. 

law  was  strong  enough  to  do  right  and  maintain 
right  between  the  citizens  of  whom  the  common- 
wealth has  jurisdiction.  That,  it  now  seems,  was 
an  error.  When  a  difference  occurs  between  a 
great  pork-packer  and  his  employees,  it  is  not  to 
the  State  that  either  party  has  resort ;  and  to 
check  apprehended  violence  the  pork-packer  finds 
it  easier,  and  perhaps  cheaper,  to  call  out  a  regi- 
ment of  hired  soldiers,  who  have  been  armed  and 
trained  for  the  service  of  the  highest  bidder.  We 
are  by  no  means  blaming  Mr.  Armour  for  hiring, 
nor  Mr.  Pinkerton  for  enlisting,  such  a  regiment. 
We  are  simply  pointing  out  that  regiments  of  hired 
bravos  are,  in  fact,  openly  enlisted,  sold  like  Hes- 
sians, and  sent  into  the  field  to  serve  whoever 
will  pay  best  for  them ;  that  a  system  of  private 
war  has  thus  been  openly  inaugurated ;  and  that 
the  State  seems  to  assume  that  it  is  all  right. 

There  are  always  two  sides  in  a  war,  whether  it 
be  a  public  or  a  private  war ;  and  in  private  wars, 
the  experience  of  the  world  shows  that  when  the 
one  side  has  the  advantage  of  wealth  and  power, 
the  other  seeks  the  advantages  which  may  be  had 
by  means  of  secret  conspiracies  and  murders. 
Tyranny  has  been  tempered  by  assassination  in 
many  other  countries  than  Russia,  and  in  so-called 
republics  as  well  as  in  autocracies.  There  was 
never  a  time  in  the  history  of  mankind  more  full  of 
danger  than  the  present  from  secret  combinations 
of  men  who  think  themselves  wronged  by  power- 


APPENDIX.  167 

ful  enemies.  These  are  days  when  one  man  may 
become  a  terror  to  thousands.  Dynamite  and  other 
chemicals  well  known  to  science  can  easily  over- 
come any  disparity  of  numbers,  and  the  dread  of  it 
can  make  the  lives  of  kings  and  kaisers  burden- 
some, until  they  fall,  like  the  present  czar  of  all 
the  Russias,  into  frenzies  of  terror  and  wild  rage. 
All  that  is  needed  is  absolute  secrecy  in  the  con- 
spirators ;  and  although  the  secrecy  of  numbers 
of  men  in  any  enterprise  is  all  but  impossible,  yet 
the  failure  of  one  conspiracy  after  another  never 
checks  the  spirit  of  conspiracy  when  it  has  taken 
hold  of  any  class  of  men.  The  history  of  the 
Italian  Carbonari  and  the  Russian  Nihilists  is  full 
of  frightful  significance.  It  was  in  vain  that  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  the  former  were,  and  it  is 
now  in  vain  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  lat- 
ter continue  to  be,  imprisoned,  tortured,  done  to 
death  in  the  most  cruel  ways  of  cruelty  itself;  the 
spirit  of  conspiracy  is  not  repressed,  —  it  spreads, 
and  grows  more  cruel  than  its  foe.  What  unimag- 
inable irony  it  would  be  if,  in  this  democratic  coun- 
try, the  working  class  were  to  become  infected 
with  the  spirit  of  conspiracy,  so  that  the  private 
armies  of  the  capitalist  were  to  be,  not  confronted, 
but  circumvented  and  assassinated  by  invisible 
conspirators !  Of  this  incomparably  execrable 
spectacle  the  present  year  has  seen  more  than 
some  faint  suggestions.  The  spirit  of  conspiracy 
is  abroad  among  our  people.  Corporations  con- 


1 68  HIGHER   GROUND. 

spire  to  rob  us  by  systems  of  deliberate  extortion  ; 
politicians  conspire  to  compel  one  class  of  the 
people  to  pay  taxes  to  another  by  ruinous  imposts ; 
the  Anarchists  of  Chicago  have  learned  that  open 
murder  is  not  safe  for  the  murderers,  but  at  the 
same  time  more  than  a  million  of  workingmen 
have  been  learning  the  art  of  secret  combination, 
—  a  lawful  art,  indeed,  but  one  which  lies  only  a 
step  off  from  the  arts  of  secret  conspiracy. 

It  is  idle  to  say  that  workingmen  shall  not  com- 
bine for  the  protection  of  their  interests,  while 
Jay  Gould  and  his  confederates  shall  be  free  to 
combine  at  pleasure  to  make  workingmen  pay  him 
and  them,  throughout  this  bitter  winter,  $2.50  per 
ton  for  coal  more  than  the  coal  is  worth,  and  that 
under  penalty  of  starving  to  death.  We  can  have 
no  laws  in  this  country  which  shall  not  at  least 
pretend  to  be  equal  for  all.  If  secret  combinations 
of  extortion  are  lawful  on  the  one  side,  secret 
combinations  are  equally  lawful  to  resist  them  on 
the  other.  And  if  private  armies  for  the  service 
of  rich  men  are  to  be  allowed,  private  armed  con- 
spiracies of  other  men  will  very  soon  make  their 
appearance.  What  a  spectacle  of  shame  the  whole 
thing  is!  What  a  confession  to  the  world  of  the 
failure  of  our  institutions !  What  a  disgrace  to 
the  present  state  of  our  society  !  What  a  presage 
of  the  future  of  our  country !  Nothing  will  avert 
the  threatening  calamity  but  a  stern  resolve  that 
no  man  nor  combination  of  men  shall  usurp  the 


APPENDIX.  169 

functions  of  the  State,  and  that  neither  Philip 
Armour  nor  Jay  Gould,  nor  any  society  of  men 
whatever,  shall  wage  private  war  in  free  America. 
But  private  war  and  dangerous  combinations 
have  at  least  a  flavor  of  romance,  and  sometimes 
they  have  a  pretext  of  justice,  which  blinds  the 
eyes  to  their  atrocity.  The  past  year  has  developed 
something  else  which  crawls  with  nothing  but  a 
spawn  of  filth.  Private  prisons  have  now  been 
established  under  the  control  of  private  detectives 
who  arrest  men  without  warrant,  confine  them 
without  let  or  hinderance,  keep  them  in  a  torture 
chamber  facetiously  called  a  "  sweat  box,"  and 
carry  them  without  question  from  city  to  city  and 
from  State  to  State  ;  who  procure  their  own  incar- 
ceration with  indicted  criminals  to  worm  confes- 
sions from  them,  or  learn  how  to  concoct  false 
testimony  to  convict  them ;  who,  in  short,  usurp 
the  place  of  law,  defy  the  law,  juggle  with  grand- 
juries,  and  laugh  all  rightful  authority  to  scorn, 
until  they  choose  to  call  upon  the  State  to  do 
their  bidding.  Have  we,  in  good  sooth,  come 
to  this,  that  lawful  authority  is  so  powerless  and 
so  contemptible  that  an  unlawful  procedure  must 
be  substituted  for  it  in  the  hands  of  a  paid  volun- 
teer of  private  individuals  ?  If  that  is  true,  then 
we  have  entered  on  a  revolution  which  will  lead 
to  worse  things  than  the  direst  pessimist  has  yet 
dared  to  forebode.  The  whole  condition  of  affairs 
as  it  is,  and  the  worse  condition  into  which  we 


I/O  HIGHER   GROUND. 

seem  to  be  drifting,  is  simply  appalling,  and  the 
question  which  will  very  speedily  be  solved  is 
whether  we  are  worthy  of  the  heritage  of  law  and 
liberty  which  was  bought  with  blood  by  better  men 
than  we.  If  we  are,  the  lessons  of  the  past  year 
will  not  fall  unheeded.  The  people  will  be  roused 
to  that  eternal  vigilance  which  is  the  price  of  lib- 
erty, and  loudly  tell  those  whom  it  may  concern 
that  to  usurp  the  functions  of  the  State  is  high 
treason,  and  that  the  penalty  of  outraged  sover- 
eignty shall  be  death. 

Extract  from   Editorial  Article  on   "  Pinkertorfs 
Men"  in  The  Nation,  New  York,  Jan.  27,  1887. 

It  cannot  be  too  soon  or  too  well  understood 
that,  as  an  armed  organization  offering  itself  for 
hire  for  purposes  of  defence  in  various  parts  of 
the  Union,  Pinkerton's  Men  are,  we  must  all  ad- 
mit, the  greatest  disgrace  that  has  befallen  the 
United  States.  No  such  evidence  of  our  internal 
weakness  and  lawlessness  as  the  existence  and 
activity  of  this  organization  constitutes  has  been 
offered  to  the  world  since  the  present  Govern- 
ment was  founded.  Its  appearance  in  any  other 
civilized  country  would  fill  to-day  every  man  in 
it  with  shame  and  astonishment.  For  it  is  —  let 
nobody  shrink  from  this  plain  truth  —  an  unmis- 
takable sign  of  retrogression  towards  mediaeval 
barbarism.  Pinkerton  is  neither  more  nor  less 


APPENDIX.  171 

than  the  head  of  a  band  of  mercenaries,  such  as 
each  great  landholder  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries  kept  in  his  pay  for  the  defence  of  his 
property  and  that  of  his  vassals  against  the  armed 
attacks  of  his  neighbors.  They  are  called  into  ex- 
istence by  exactly  the  same  causes  now  as  then, — 
the  absence  of  a  public  force  capable  of  enforcing 
the  law  of  the  land,  and  affording  security  for  life 
and  property  to  the  peaceable  and  well-disposed. 
Now  as  then,  now  as  at  every  time  since  the 
dawn  of  civilization,  no  men  of  the  Aryan  race 
who  have  accumulated  property  of  any  kind  will 
submit  to  be  despoiled  of  it,  or  interfered  with  in 
the  management  of  it,  or  allow  any  person  or  body 
of  persons  to  "go  upon  them  or  send  upon  them," 
as  the  Barons  said  in  Magna  Charta,  without  try- 
ing to  defend  themselves.  If  there  are  courts, 
they  will  appeal  to  the  courts ;  if  there  are 
police,  they  will  call  in  the  police ;  if  there  are 
troops,  they  will  ask  for  the  troops  to  defend  their 
rights  under  the  law;  but  if  neither  courts,  nor 
police,  nor  troops  will  do  anything  for  them,  they 
will  hire  an  army  of  their  own.  Of  course,  this 
is  anarchy  in  its  first  stage.  The  word  is  not  a 
pleasant  one,  but  it  must  be  used  when  the  oc- 
casion calls  for  it. 


HIGHER   GROUND. 


II. 

THE  following  letter  from  Albert  E.  Macomber 
Esq.,  who  is  a  member  of  the  board  of  directors 
of  the  Toledo  Manual  Training  School,  explains 
itself :  — 

TOLEDO,  Jan.  6,  1887. 
MY  DEAR  COL.  JACOBSON, — 

Your  note  of  the  4th  inst.  is  at  hand.  I  send  you 
the  last  report,  which  contains  about  all  there  is  to  say 
about  this  department. 

We  secured  last  September  a  teacher  from  Mrs. 
Swing's  School  in  Iowa,  —  Miss  Nellie  E.  Rawson. 
She  is  a  bright  young  woman,  a  graduate  of  the  Iowa 
State  University,  and  thus  comes  to  her  work  with  no 
narrow  preparation.  She  has  three  classes,  of  say  six- 
teen each, — bright  girls  of  the  high-school  age,  who 
seem  to  be  as  full  of  enthusiasm  for  this  instruction  in 
practical  cookery  as  the  boys  are  in  their  line. 

Last  month  the  morning  class  invited  the  Board  of 
Education  and  the  Directors  of  the  Manual  Training 
School  to  a  supper  spread  in  the  class-room,  —  every- 
thing on  the  tables  having  been  prepared  by  the  pupils ; 
and  the  table  and  service  did  them  great  credit,  and 
was  a  surprise  to  most  of  the  guests. 

Miss  Rawson  has  been  fully  occupied  with  her  classes 
in  cooking,  but  next  year  a  competent  teacher  will  be 
secured  to  give  instruction  in  garment-making.  From 
our  brief  experience  there  seems  no  reason  to  doubt 


APPENDIX. 


173 


that  the  girls  will  take  as  kindly  to  this  line  of  instruc- 
tion as  the  boys  do,  in  the  shops,  to  their  work.  It 
was  found  that  the  majority  of  these  bright  girls  were 
utterly  ignorant  of  the  first  principles  of  practical 
household  work,  and  it  is  evident  that  a  School  of 
Domestic  Economy  has  just  as  wide  a  field  of  useful- 
ness before  it  as  the  Manual  Training  School  for 
Boys. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

A.  E.  MACOMBER. 


{Toledo  Manual  Training  School  Catalogue,  1887.] 

COURSE  OF  COMBINED  STUDY  AND  TRAINING 
FOR  GIRLS. 

DOMESTIC  ECONOMY  DEPARTMENT. 


FIRST  YEAR. 

( I . )  Mathematics.  —  Arithmetic. 

(2.)  Science.  —  Physical  Geography. 

(3.)  Language.  —  Grammar,  Spelling,  Writ- 
ing, English  composition. 

(4.)  Drawing.  —  Free  Hand  and  Mechanical, 
Lettering. 

(5.)  Domestic  Economy.  —  Care  and  use  of 
tools,  and  how  to  handle  them.  Light 
Carpentry,  Wood-Carving. 

SECOND  YEAR. 

(l.)  Mathematics.  —  Algebra,  Arithmetic. 
(2.)  Science.  —  Physiology  and  Botany. 
(3.)  Language. —  Grammar,   Rhetoric,   Writ- 
ing. 


Senior 

Grammar 

School. 

Manual 
•    Training 
School. 


Junior 

High 

School. 


174 


HIGHER   GROUND. 


(4.)  Drawing.  —  Free  Hand  and  Mechanical.    "| 
Designs  for  Wood-Carving.   Clay-Mod- 
elling. 

(5.)  Domestic  Economy.  —  Introduction  to 
course  in  Cooking,  or  Garment  Cutting 
and  Making.  Use  of  Household  Tools. 
Light  Shop-work. 


Manual 

Training 

School. 


THIRD   YEAR. 

(i.)  Mathematics.  —  Geometry,  Arithmetic 
reviewed. 

(2.)  Science.  —  Physics. 

(3.)  Language.  —  English,  Composition,  His- 
tory. 

(4.)  Drawing.  —  Free  Hand  and  Architec- 
tural, Designing  from  Plant  and  Leaf 
Forms. 

(5.)  Domestic  Economy.  — Instruction  in  Pre- 
paring and  Cooking  Food,  Purchasing 
Household  Supplies,  Care  of  the  Sick, 
etc. 

FOURTH   YEAR. 

(r.)  Mathematics.  —  Plane  Trigonometry,  Me- 
chanics. 

(2.)  Science.  —  Chemistry,  Book-keeping,  Eth- 
ics ;  Rights  and  Duties,  Laws  of  Right 
Conduct. 

(3.)  Language.  —  Political  Economy,  English 
Literature  and  Composition. 

(4.)  Drawing.  —  Machine  and  Architectural 
Details,  Decorative  Designing. 

(5.)  Domestic  Economy.  —  Cutting,  Making, 
and  Fitting  of  Garments,  Household 
Decorations,  Typewriting,  etc. 


Middle 

High 

School. 


Manual 

Training 

School. 


Senior 

High 

School. 


Manual 

Training 

School. 


APPENDIX.  175 

The  above  course  in  Domestic  Economy  is  ar- 
ranged with  special  reference  to  giving  young 
women  such  a  liberal  and  practical  education  as 
will  inspire  them  with  a  belief  in  the  dignity  and 
nobleness  of  an  earnest  womanhood,  and  incite 
them  to  a  faithful  performance  of  the  every-day 
duties  of  life  ;  it  is  based  upon  the  assumption 
that  a  pleasant  home  is  an  essential  element  of 
broad  culture,  and  one  of  the  surest  safeguards  of 
morality  and  virtue. 

The  design  of  this  course  is  to  furnish  thorough 
instructions  in  applied  housekeeping  and  the 
sciences  relating  thereto,  and  students  will  receive 
practical  drill  in  all  branches  of  housework,  in 
the  purchase  and  care  of  family  supplies,  and  in 
general  household  management ;  but  will  not  be 
expected  to  perform  more  labor  than  is  actually 
necessary  for  the  desired  instruction. 

In  cookery  practical  instructions  will  be  given 
in  the  means  employed  in  BOILING,  BROILING, 
BAKING,  FRYING,  and  MIXING,  as  follows  :  — 

BOILING.  —  Practical  illustrations  of  boiling  and 
steaming,  and  treatment  of  vegetables,  meats,  fish, 
and  cereals,  soup-making,  etc. 

BROILING.  —  Lessons  and  practice  in  :  meat, 
chicken,  fish,  oysters,  etc. 

BREAD-MAKING.  —  Chemical  and  mechanical 
action  of  materials  used.  Manipulations  in  bread- 
making  in  its  various  departments.  Yeasts  and 
their  substitutes. 


176  HIGHER  GROUND. 

BAKING.  —  Heat  in  its  action  on  different  ma- 
terials in  the  process  of  baking.  Practical  ex- 
periments in  baking  bread,  pastry,  puddings,  cake, 
meats,  fish,  etc. 

FRYING.  —  Chemical  and  mechanical  principles 
involved  and  illustrated  in  the  frying  of  vege- 
tables, meats,  fish,  oysters,  etc. 

MIXING.  —  The  art  of  making  combinations,  as 
in  soups,  salads,  puddings,  pies,  cakes,  sauces, 
dressings,  flavorings,  condiments,  etc. 

MARKETING  AND  ECONOMY,  ETC.  —  The  selec- 
tion, and  purchase  of  household  supplies.  Gen- 
eral instructions  in  systematizing  and  economiz- 
ing household  work  and  expenses.  The  anatomy 
of  animals  used  as  food,  and  how  to  choose  and 
use  the  several  parts.  Lessons  on  the  qualities  of 
water  and  steam  ;  the  construction  of  stoves  and 
ranges  ;  the  properties  of  different  fuels. 

THE  TEXTILE  FABRIC  WORK  will  cover  instruc- 
tions in  garment  cutting  and  making ;  the  eco- 
nomical and  tasteful  use  of  materials  ;  millinery, 
etc. 

THE   DOMESTIC   ECONOMY   DEPARTMENT. 

Opposite  to  the  drawing-rooms  on  the  fourth 
floor,  and  occupying  the  whole  of  the  west  half  of 
the  building,  are  the  cooking-class  and  the  textile 
fabric  rooms,  lighted  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
drawing-rooms,  warmed  by  steam,  and  perfectly 
ventilated. 


APPENDIX.  177 

THE  COOKING-ROOM. 

This  is  40x27  feet,  with  one  large  Garland 
Range,  and  two  gas  cooking-stoves,  five  double 
tables  5  ft.  long  by  5  ft.  wide,  each  table  to  ac- 
commodate four  pupils,  each  with  her  own  table 
space  for  work,  and  a  small  gas-stove  on  the  table 
between  each  two,  —  the  accommodations  being  for 
classes  of  twenty.  Each  table  space  has  a  drawer 
and  cupboard  below  it  for  all  essential  utensils, 
and  each  pupil  must  personally  go  through  every 
process  taught.  At  the  other  end  of  the  room 
are  pantry  closets  for  teachers'  use,  and  a  com- 
modious wash-room  with  all  conveniences  for  girls, 
including  individual  closets  for  each  to  keep 
aprons,  clothes,  etc. 

THE   TEXTILE   FABRIC    ROOM. 

This  is  also  40x27  feet,  in  the  north  part  of 
the  building.  The  furniture  and  appliances  for 
teaching  domestic  handiwork  in  the  cutting  and 
making  of  garments,  upholstery,  house-furnishing, 
hand  and  machine  sewing,  etc.,  and  teachers  for 
the  same  will  be  provided  for  the  school-year 
beginning  September  5,  1887. 

In  arranging  the  laboratory  work  for  boys, 
the  methods  of  the  St.  Louis  Manual  Training 
School  under  Dr.  C.  M.  Woodward  have  been 
closely  followed,  while  the  Department  of  Do- 
mestic Economy  has  been  mainly  indebted  to 


178  HIGHER   GROUND. 

Mrs.  Emma  P.  Ewing,  Dean  of  the  School  of 
Domestic  Economy,  of  Iowa  State  College  at 
Ames,  Iowa. 

From  the  Report  of  the  Directors  of  the  Toledo 
Manual  Training  School  to  the  Mayor  and 
Common  Council  of  the  City. 

Since  the  last  report  the  Department  of  Do- 
mestic Economy  has  received  the  earnest  atten- 
tion of  your  Directors. 

It  became  apparent  that  not  only  abstract 
justice  but  an  enlightened  public  sentiment  de- 
manded that  the  opportunities  for  industrial 
instruction  for  girls  should  be  as  ample  and 
complete  as  that  contemplated  for  boys. 

While  the  work  of  this  department  was  not 
wholly  without  precedent,  yet  your  Directors 
deemed  it  wise  to  call  to  their  aid  an  advisory 
council  of  ladies  to  assist  in  maturing  the  general 
plan  and  details  of  such  instruction ;  and  the  ad- 
vice and  direction  of  such  council  has  been  of 
value  in  the  organization  of  this  department. 

Two  large  and  well-lighted  rooms  on  the  upper 
floor  of  the  new  building  have  been  set  apart  for 
this  work,  one  of  which  has  been  furnished  with 
all  needed  appliances  for  practical  instruction  in 
cookery. 

A  skilful  teacher,  Miss  N.  E.  Rawson,  a  pupil 
of  Mrs.  Ewing  of  the  Iowa  State  College,  has 


APPENDIX.  179 

been  secured,  and  instruction  in  cookery  is  now 
furnished  to  large  and  enthusiastic  classes. 

The  Department  of  Domestic  Economy  has 
been  received  with  great  favor  and  support,  and 
promises  to  meet  the  full  expectations  of  those 
who  most  warmly  encouraged  its  establishment. 
The  instruction  in  cookery  has  proved  of  great 
practical  value.  Next  school-year  instruction  will 
be  furnished  in  cutting  and  garment  making. 


180  HIGHER   GROUND. 

III. 

LAWS   OF   NEW  YORK. 
[CHAPTER  483.] 

An  Act  to  tax  gifts,  legacies,  and  collateral  inheri- 
tances in  certain  cases.  (Passed  June  10,  1885  ; 
three  fifths  being  present, .) 

The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented 
in  Senate  and  Assembly,  do  enact  as  follows :  — 

SECT.  i.  After  the  passage  of  this  act,  all  prop- 
erty which  shall  pass  by  will  or  by  the  intestate 
laws  of  this  State  from  any  person  who  may  die 
seized  or  possessed  of  the  same  while  being  a  resi- 
dent of  the  State,  or  which  property  shall  be  within 
this  State,  or  any  part  of  such  property,  or  any  in- 
terest therein,  or  income  therefrom,  transferred  by 
deed,  grant,  sale,  or  gift  made  or  intended  to  take 
effect  in  possession  or  enjoyment  after  the  death 
of  the  grantor  or  bargainer,  to  any  person  or  per- 
sons, or  to  a  body  politic  or  corporate,  in  trust  or 
otherwise,  or  by  reason  whereof  any  person,  or 
body  politic  or  corporate  shall  become  beneficially 
entitled,  in  possession  or  expectancy,  to  any  prop- 
erty, or  to  the  income  thereof,  other  than  to  or  for 
the  use  of  father,  mother,  husband,  wife,  children, 
brother  and  sister,  and  lineal  descendants  born  in 
lawful  wedlock,  and  the  wife  or  widow  of  a  son 


APPENDIX.  l8l 

and  the  husband  of  a  daughter,  and  the  societies, 
corporations,  and  institutions  now  exempted  by 
law  from  taxation,  shall  be  and  is  subject  to  a  tax 
of  five  dollars  on  every  hundred  dollars  of  the 
clear  market  value  of  such  property  and  at  and 
after  the  same  rate  for  any  less  amount,  to  be  paid 
to  the  treasurer  of  the  proper  county,  and  in  the 
city  and  county  of  New  York  to  the  comptroller 
thereof,  for  the  use  of  the  State,  and  all  adminis- 
trators, executors  and  trustees  shall  be  liable  for 
any  and  all  such  taxes  until  the  same  shall  have 
been  paid,  as  hereinafter  directed  ;  provided  that 
an  estate  which  may  be  valued  at  a  less  sum  than 
five  hundred  dollars  shall  not  be  subject  to  said 
duty  or  tax. 

SECT.  2.  When  any  person  shall  bequeath  or 
devise  any  property,  or  interest  therein,  or  income 
therefrom,  to  a  father,  mother,  husband,  wife,  chil- 
dren, brother,  and  sister,  the  widow  of  a  son,  or 
a  lineal  descendant,  during  life  or  for  a  term  of 
years,  and  the  remainder  to  a  collateral  heir  of 
the  decedent,  or  to  a  stranger  in  blood,  or  to  a 
body  politic  or  corporate  at  their  decease,  or  on 
the  expiration  of  such  term,  the  property  so  pass- 
ing shall  be  appraised  immediately  after  the  death 
of  the  decedent,  at  what  was  the  fair  market 
value  thereof  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  the 
decedent,  in  the  manner  hereinafter  provided,  and 
after  deducting  therefrom  the  value  of  said  life 
estate,  or  term  of  years,  the  tax  prescribed  by 


1 82  HIGHER   GROUND. 

this  act  on  the  remainder  shall  be  immediately 
due  and  payable  to  the  treasurer  of  the  proper 
county,  and  in  the  city  and  county  of  New  York 
to  the  comptroller  thereof,  and,  together  with 
the  interest  thereon,  shall  be  and  remain  a  lien 
on  said  property  until  the  same  is  paid ;  pro- 
vided that  the  person  or  persons,  or  body  politic 
or  corporate  beneficially  interested  in  the  property 
chargeable  with  said  tax  may  elect  not  to  pay  the 
same  until  they  shall  come  into  the  actual  posses- 
sion or  enjoyment  of  such  property,  or,  and  in 
that  case,  such  person  or  persons,  or  body  politic 
or  corporate,  shall  give  a  bond  to  the  people  of 
the  State  of  New  York  in  a  penalty  three  times 
the  amount  of  the  tax  arising  upon  personal  estate, 
with  such  sureties  as  the  said  surrogate  may  ap- 
prove, conditioned  for  the  payment  of  said  tax 
and  interest  thereon,  at  such  time  or  period  as 
they  or  their  representatives  may  come  into  the 
actual  possession  or  enjoyment  of  such  property, 
which  bond  shall  be  filed  in  the  office  of  the  sur- 
rogate of  the  proper  county;  provided,  further, 
that  such  person  shall  make  a  full  verified  return 
of  such  property  to  said  surrogate,  and  file  the 
same  in  his  office  within  one  year  from  the  death 
of  the  decedent  and  within  that  period  enter 
into  such  security  and  renew  the  same  every 
five  years. 

SECT.  3.  Whenever    a    decedent    appoints    or 
names   one   or   more   executors   or  trustees  and 


APPENDIX.  1 83 

makes  a  bequest  or  devise  of  property  to  them 
in  lieu  of  their  commissions  or  allowances  which 
otherwise  would  be  liable  to  said  tax,  or  appoints 
them  his  residuary  legatees,  and  said  bequest,  de- 
vises, or  residuary  legacies  exceed  what  would  be 
a  reasonable  compensation  for  their  services,  such 
excess  shall  be  liable  to  said  tax,  and  the  surro- 
gate's court  having  jurisdiction  in  the  case  shall 
fix  such  compensation. 

SECT.  4.  All  taxes  imposed  by  this  act,  unless 
otherwise  herein  provided  for,  shall  be  due  and 
.payable  at  the  death  of  the  decedent,  and  if  the 
same  are  paid  within  one  year,  interest  at  the 
rate  of  six  per  cent  per  annum  shall  be  charged 
and  collected  thereon,  but  if  not  so  paid,  interest 
at  the  rate  of  ten  per  cent  per  annum  shall  be 
charged  and  collected  from  the  time  said  tax 
accrued  •  provided,  that  if  said  tax  is  paid  within 
six  months  from  the  accruing  thereof,  interest 
shall  not  be  charged  or  collected  thereon,  but  a 
discount  of  five  per  cent  shall  be  allowed  and  de- 
ducted from  said  tax,  and  in  all  cases  where  the 
executors,  administrators,  or  trustees  do  not  pay 
such  tax  within  one  year  from  the  death  of  the 
decedent,  they  shall  be  required  to  give  a  bond 
in  the  form  and  to  the  effect  prescribed  in  section 
two  of  this  act  for  the  payment  of  said  tax,  to- 
gether with  interest. 

SECT.  5.  The  penalty  of  ten  per  cent  per  an- 
num imposed  by  section  four  hereof  for  the  non- 


1 84  HIGHER   GROUND. 

payment  of  said  tax,  shall  not  be  charged  where 
in  cases  by  reason  of  claims  made  upon  the 
estate,  necessary  litigation  or  other  unavoidable 
cause  of  delay,  the  estate  of  any  decedent,  or  a 
part  thereof,  cannot  be  settled  at  the  end  of  a 
year  from  the  death  of  the  decedent,  and  in 
such  cases  only  six  per  cent  per  annum  shall  be 
charged  upon  the  said  tax  from  the  expiration 
of  such  year  until  the  cause  of  such  delay  is 
removed. 

SECT.  6.  Any  administrator,  executor,  or  trus- 
tee having  in  charge  or  trust  any  legacy  or  prop- 
erty for  distribution  subject  to  the  said  tax  shall 
deduct  the  tax  therefrom,  or  if  the  legacy  or  prop- 
erty be  not  money,  he  shall  collect  the  tax  thereon, 
upon  the  appraised  value  thereof,  from  the  legatee 
or  person  entitled  to  such  property,  and  he  shall 
not  deliver  or  be  compelled  to  deliver  any  specific 
legacy  or  property  subject  to  tax  to  any  person, 
until  he  shall  have  collected  the  tax  thereon ;  and 
whenever  any  such  legacy  shall  be  charged  upon 
or  payable  out  of  real  estate,  the  heir  or  devisee, 
before  paying  the  same,  shall  deduct  said  tax 
therefrom,  and  pay  the  same  to  the  executor,  ad- 
ministrator, or  trustee,  and  the  same  shall  remain 
a  charge  on  such  real  estate  until  paid,  and  the 
payment  thereof  shall  be  enforced  by  the  execu- 
tor, administrator,  or  trustee  in  the  same  manner 
that  the  payment  of  such  legacy  might  be  en- 
forced ;  if,  however,  such  legacy  be  given  in 


APPENDIX.  185 

money  to  any  person  for  a  limited  period,  he  shall 
retain  the  tax  upon  the  whole  amount,  but  if  it 
be  not  in  money,  he  shall  make  application  to 
the  court  having  jurisdiction  of  his  accounts,  to 
make  an  apportionment,  if  the  case  require  it,  of 
the  sum  to  be  paid  into  his  hands  by  such  lega- 
tees, and  for  such  further  order  relative  thereto  as 
the  case  may  require. 

SECT.  7.  All  executors,  administrators,  and  trus- 
tees shall  have  full  power  to  sell  so  much  of  the 
property  of  the  decedent  as  will  enable  them  to 
pay  said  tax,  in  the  same  manner  as  they  may  be 
enabled  by  law  to  do  for  the  payment  of  debts  of 
their  testators  and  intestates,  and  the  amount  of 
said  tax  shall  be  paid  as  hereinafter  directed. 

SECT.  8.  Every  sum  of  money  retained  by  any 
executor,  administrator,  or  trustee,  or  paid  into 
his  hands  for  any  tax  on  any  property,  shall  be 
paid  by  him,  within  thirty  days  thereafter,  to  the 
treasurer  of  the  proper  county,  or  in  the  city  and 
county  of  New  York,  to  the  comptroller  thereof, 
and  the  said  treasurer  or  comptroller  shall  give, 
and  every  executor,  administrator,  or  trustee  shall 
take,  duplicate  receipts  from  him  of  such  pay- 
ment, one  of  which  receipts  he  shall  immediately 
send  to  the  comptroller  of  the  State,  whose  duty 
it  shall  be  to  charge  the  treasurer  or  comptroller 
so  receiving  the  tax  with  the  amount  thereof,  and 
shall  seal  said  receipt  with  the  seal  of  his  office, 
and  countersign  the  same  and  return  it  to  the  ex- 


1 86  HIGHER    GROUND. 

ecutor,  administrator,  or  trustee,  whereupon  it 
shall  be  a  proper  voucher  in  the  settlement  of 
his  accounts ;  but  an  executor,  administrator,  or 
trustee  shall  not  be  entitled  to  credit  in  his  ac- 
counts nor  be  discharged  from  liability  for  such 
tax  unless  he  shall  produce  a  receipt  so  sealed 
and  countersigned  by  the  comptroller,  or  a  copy 
thereof  certified  by  him. 

SECT.  9.  Whenever  any  of  the  real  estate  of 
which  any  decedent  may  die  seized  shall  pass  to 
any  body  politic  or  corporate,  or  to  any  person 
or  persons  other  than  the  father,  mother,  husband, 
wife,  lawful  issue,  wife  or  widow  of  a  son,  or  hus- 
band of  a  daughter,  or  in  trust  for  them,  or  some 
of  them,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  executors,  ad- 
ministrators, or  trustees  of  such  decedent  to  give 
information  thereof  in  writing  to  the  treasurer  or 
comptroller  of  the  county  where  such  real  estate 
is  situate,  within  six  months  after  they  undertake 
the  execution  of  their  respective  duties,  or,  if  the 
fact  be  not  known  to  them  within  that  period, 
then  within  one  month  after  the  same  shall  have 
come  to  their  knowledge. 

SECT.  10.  Whenever  any  debts  shall  be  proven 
against  the  estate  of  a  decedent,  after  the  pay- 
ment of  legacies  or  distribution  of  property,  from 
which  the  said  tax  has  been  deducted,  or  upon 
which  it  has  been  paid,  and  a  refund  is  made  by 
the  legatee,  devisee,  heir  or  next  of  kin,  a  pro- 
portion of  the  tax  so  paid  shall  be  repaid  to  him 


APPENDIX.  187 

by  the  executor,  administrator,  or  trustee,  if  the 
said  tax  has  not  been  paid  to  the  county  treasurer, 
comptroller,  or  to  the  State  treasurer,  or  by  them 
if  it  has  been  so  paid. 

SECT.  ii.  Whenever  any  foreign  executor  or  ad- 
ministrator shall  assign  or  transfer  any  stocks  or 
loans  in  this  State,  standing  in  the  name  of  a  de- 
cedent, or  in  trust  for  a  decedent,  which  shall 
be  liable  to  the  said  tax,  such  tax  shall  be  paid  to 
the  treasurer  or  comptroller  of  the  proper  county 
on  the  transfer  thereof,  otherwise  the  corporation 
permitting  such  transfer  shall  become  liable  to 
pay  such  tax,  provided  that  such  corporation  has 
knowledge  before  such  transfer  that  said  stocks  or 
loans  are  liable  to  said  tax. 

SECT.  12.  When  any  amount  of  said  tax  shall 
have  been  paid  erroneously  to  the  State  treasurer, 
it  shall  be  lawful  for  him,  on  satisfactory  proof 
rendered  to  the  comptroller  by  said  county  treas- 
urer or  comptroller  of  such  erroneous  payment,  to 
refund  and  pay  to  the  executor,  administrator,  per- 
son, or  persons  who  have  paid  any  such  tax  in 
error,  the  amount  of  such  tax  so  paid,  provided 
that  all  such  applications  for  the  repayment  of 
such  tax  shall  be  made  v/ithin  two  years  from  the 
date  of  such  payment. 

SECT.  13.  In  order  to  fix  the  value  of  property 
of  persons  whose  estates  shall  be  subject  to  the 
payment  of  said  tax,  the  surrogate,  on  the  appli- 
cation of  any  interested  party,  or  upon  his  own 


1 88  HIGHER   GROUND. 

motion  shall  appoint  some  competent  person  as 
appraiser  as  often  as,  and  whenever  occasion  may 
require,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  forthwith  to  give 
such  notice  by  mail,  and  to  such  persons  as  the 
surrogate  may  by  order  direct,  of  the  time  and 
place  he  will  appraise  such  property ;  and  at  such 
time  and  place  to  appraise  the  same  at  its  fair 
market  value,  and  make  a  report  thereof  in  writing 
to  said  surrogate,  together  with  such  other  facts  in 
relation  thereto  as  said  surrogate  may  by  order 
require  to  be  filed  in  the  office  of  such  surrogate ; 
and  from  this  report  the  said  surrogate  shall  forth- 
with assess  and  fix  the  then  cash  value  of  all 
estates,  annuities,  and  life  estates,  or  term  of 
years  growing  out  of  said  estate,  and  the  tax  to 
which  the  same  is  liable,  and  shall  immediately 
give  notice  thereof  by  mail  to  all  parties  known  to 
be  interested  therein.  Any  person  or  persons  dis- 
satisfied with  said  appraisement  or  assessment 
may  appeal  therefrom  to  the  surrogate  of  the 
proper  county  within  sixty  days  after  the  making 
and  filing  of  such  assessment,  on  paying,  or  giving 
security  approved  by  the  surrogate  to  pay  all 
costs,  together  with  whatever  tax  shall  be  fixed 
by  said  court.  The  said  appraiser  shall  be  paid 
by  the  county  treasurer  or  comptroller  out  of  any 
funds  he  may  have  in  his  hands  on  account  of  said 
tax,  on  the  certificate  of  the  surrogate,  at  the  rate 
of  three  dollars  per  day  for  every  day  actually  and 
necessarily  employed  in  said  appraisement,  to- 


APPENDIX.  1 89 

gather  with  his  actual  and  necessary  travelling 
expenses. 

SECT.  14.  Any  appraiser  appointed  by  virtue  of 
this  act  who  shall  take  any  fee  or  reward  from  any 
executor,  administrator,  trustee,  legatee,  next  of 
kin  or  heir  of  any  decedent,  or  from  any  other  per- 
son liable  to  pay  said  tax  or  any  portion  thereof, 
shall  be  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and  upon  con- 
viction in  any  court  having  jurisdiction  of  mis- 
demeanors he  shall  be  fined  not  less  than  two 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  nor  more  than  five  hun- 
dred dollars,  and  imprisoned  not  exceeding  ninety 
days ;  and  in  addition  thereto  the  surrogate  shall 
dismiss  him  from  such  service. 

SECT.  15.  The  surrogate's  court  in  the  county 
in  which  the  real  property  is  situate  of  a  decedent 
who  was  not  a  resident  of  the  State,  or  in  the 
county  of  which  the  decedent  was  a  resident  at 
the  time  of  his  death,  shall  have  jurisdiction  to 
hear  and  determine  all  questions  in  relation  to 
the  tax  arising  under  the  provisions  of  this  act, 
and  the  surrogate  first  acquiring  jurisdiction  here- 
under  shall  retain  the  same  to  the  exclusion  of 
every  other. 

SECT.  1 6.  If  it  shall  appear  to  the  surrogate's 
court  that  any  tax  accruing  under  this  act  has 
not  been  paid  according  to  law,  it  shall  issue  a 
citation  citing  the  persons  interested  in  the  prop- 
erty liable  to  the  tax  to  appear  before  the  court 
on  a  day  certain,  not  more  than  three  months  after 


I QO  HIGHER   GROUND. 

the  date  of  such  citation,  and  show  cause  why  said 
tax  should  not  be  paid.  The  service  of  such  cita- 
tion, and  the  time,  manner,  and  proof  thereof  and 
fees  therefor,  and  the  hearing  and  determina- 
tion thereon,  and  the  enforcement  of  the  determi- 
nation or  decree  shall  conform  to  the  provisions 
of  the  Code  of  Civil  Procedure  for  the  service  of 
citations  now  issuing  out  of  surrogate's  courts, 
and  the  hearing  and  determination  thereon  and  its 
enforcement.  And  the  surrogate  or  clerk  of  the 
surrogate's  court  shall,  upon  the  request  of  the 
district  attorney,  treasurer  of  the  county,  or  comp- 
troller of  the  county  of  New  York,  furnish,  with- 
out fee,  one  or  more  transcripts  of  such  decree, 
as  provided  in  section  twenty-five  hundred  and 
fifty-three  of  the  Code  of  Civil  Procedure,  and  the 
same  shall  be  docketed  and  filed  by  the  county 
clerk  of  any  county  in  the  State  without  fee  in 
the  same  manner  and  with  the  same  effect  as 
provided  by  said  section  for  filing  and  docketing 
transcripts  of  decrees  of  such  courts. 

SECT.  17.  Whenever  the  treasurer  or  comptrol- 
ler of  any  county  shall  have  reason  to  believe 
that  any  tax  is  due  and  unpaid  under  this  act 
after  the  refusal  or  neglect  of  the  persons  inter- 
ested in  the  property  liable  to  said  tax  to  pay  the 
same,  he  shall  notify  the  district  attorney  of  the 
proper  county,  in  writing,  of  such  failure  to  pay 
such  tax,  and  the  district  attorney  so  notified,  if  he 
have  probable  cause  to  believe  a  tax  is  due  and  un- 


APPENDIX.  191 

paid,  shall  prosecute  the  proceedings  in  the  surro- 
gate's court  in  the  proper  county,  as  provided  in 
section  sixteen  of  this  act,  for  the  enforcement  and 
collection  of  such  tax.  All  costs  awarded  by  such 
decree  that  may  be  collected  after  the  collection 
and  payment  of  the  tax  to  the  treasurer  or  comp- 
troller of  the  proper  county  may  be  retained  by 
the  district  attorney  hereafter  elected  or  appointed 
for  his  own  use. 

SECT.  1 8.  The  surrogate  and  county  clerk  of 
each  county  shall,  every  three  months,  make  a 
statement  in  writing  to  the  county  treasurer  or 
comptroller  of  his  county  of  the  property  from 
which  or  the  party  from  whom  he  has  reason  to 
believe  a  tax  under  this  act  is  due  and  unpaid. 

SECT.  19.  Whenever  the  surrogate  of  any  county 
shall  certify  that  there  was  probable  cause  for 
issuing  a  citation  and  taking  the  proceedings 
specified  in  section  sixteen  of  this  act,  the  State 
treasurer  shall  pay  or  allow  to  the  treasurer  or 
comptroller  of  any  county  all  expenses  incurred 
for  services  of  citation  and  his  other  lawful  dis- 
bursements that  have  not  otherwise  been  paid. 

SECT.  20.  The  comptroller  of  the  State  shall 
furnish  to  each  surrogate  a  book  in  which  he 
shall  enter  the  returns  made  by  appraisers,  the 
cash  value  of  annuities,  life  estates,  and  terms  of 
years  and  other  property  fixed  by  him,  and  the 
tax  assessed  thereon  and  the  amounts  of  any  re- 
ceipts for  payments  thereon  filed  with  him,  which 


1 92  HIGHER   GROUND. 

books  shall  be  kept  in  the  office  of  the  surrogate 
as  a  public  record. 

SECT.  21.  The  treasurer  of  each  county  and  the 
comptroller  of  the  county  of  New  York,  shall 
collect  and  pay  the  State  treasurer  all  taxes  that 
may  be  due  and  payable  under  this  act,  who 
shall  give  him  a  receipt  therefor,  of  which  collec- 
tion and  payment  he  shall  make  a  report  under 
oath  to  the  comptroller  on  the  first  Monday  in 
March  and  September  of  each  year,  stating  for 
what  estate  paid,  and  in  such  form  and  containing 
such  particulars  as  the  comptroller  may  prescribe  ; 
and  for  all  such  taxes  collected  by  him  and  not 
paid  to  the  State  treasurer  by  the  first  day  of 
October  and  April  of  each  year,  he  shall  pay  in- 
terest at  the  rate  of  ten  per  cent  per  annum. 

SECT.  22.  The  treasurer  of  each  county  and  the 
comptroller  of  the  county  of  New  York  hereafter 
elected  or  appointed  shall  be  allowed  to  retain 
five  per  cent  on  all  taxes  paid  and  accounted  for 
by  him  under  this  act  in  full  for  his  services  in 
collecting  and  paying  the  same,  in  addition  to  his 
salary  or  fees  now  allowed  by  law. 

SECT.  23.  Any  person,  or  body  politic  or  cor- 
porate, shall,  upon  payment  of  the  sum  of  fifty 
cents,  be  entitled  to  a  receipt  from  the  county 
treasurer  of  any  county  or  comptroller  of  the 
county  of  New  York,  or  a  copy  of  the  receipt  at 
his  option,  that  may  have  been  given  by  said 
treasurer  or  comptroller,  for  the  payment  of  any 


APPENDIX.  193 

tax  under  this  act,  to  be  sealed  with  the  seal  of 
his  office,  which  receipt  shall  designate  on  what 
real  property,  if  any,  of  which  any  decedent  may 
have  died  seized,  said  tax  has  been  paid,  and  by 
whom  paid,  and  whether  or  not  it  is  in  full  of 
said  tax,  and  said  receipt  may  be  recorded  in  the 
clerk's  office  of  the  county  in  which  said  property 
is  situate,  in  a  book  to  be  kept  by  said  clerk  for 
such  purpose,  which  shall  be  labelled  "  Collateral 
Tax." 


IQ4  HIGHER   GROUND. 


IV. 


LAWYERS  are  notoriously  conservative.  Yet  so 
pressing  has  become  the  need  of  doing  some- 
thing to  limit  "abnormally  large  fortunes"  that 
the  Illinois  lawyers  are  discussing  the  propriety  of 
limiting  by  law  the  amount  of  money  which  can 
be  inherited  by  any  one  person.  At  the  meeting 
of  the  Bar  Association  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  in 
January,  1887,  the  following  among  other  pro- 
ceedings were  had  :  — 


LIMITING   THE   AMOUNT   OF   AN    IN- 
HERITANCE. 

Messrs.  Harvey  B.  Hurd  and  James  A.  Con- 
nolly, the  special  committee  on  the  advisability  of 
amending  the  statutes  of  descent  and  wills  so  as 
to  limit  the  amount  any  one  person  can  inherit  or 
take  by  will  from  the  same  decedent,  submitted 
a  report,  the  substance  of  which  is  as  follows  : 
The  Committee  in  a » previous  report  did  not  ad- 
vocate any  plan  that  would  carry  away  an  estate 
from  the  kin  of  the  decedent,  but  one  that  would 
break  it  up  into  smaller  portions  than  is  done 
in  the  great  estates  of  the  present  time,  and 
so  counteract  the  growing  tendency  to  mass  the 
wealth  of  the  country  in  a  few  hands.  The 


APPENDIX.  195 

amount  a  child  might  take  could  be  limited  to 
$500,000.  In  the  case  of  an  estate  of  $1,000,000 
to  which  there  were  as  heirs,  in  the  first  degree  a 
child,  in  the  second  three  brothers,  and  in  the 
third  ten  other  persons,  it  was  recommended  that 
the  estate  should  be  divided  so  as  to  give  $500,- 
ooo  to  the  child,  $100,000  to  each  of  the  three 
brothers,  and  $200,000  among  the  ten  persons  in 
the  third  degree  of  kinship  in  equal  shares.  If 
more  than  enough  to  pay  these,  the  surplus  might 
go  to  those  in  the  next  degree  of  kinship.  No 
restriction  was  proposed  upon  devises  for  educa- 
tional or  charitable  purposes.  Upon  the  ques- 
tion whether  such  a  law  would  not  be  evaded  by 
gifts  inter  vivos,  and  especially  in  anticipation  of 
approaching  death,  it  was  sufficient  to  say  that 
the  law  could  be  so  framed  as  to  avoid  all  gifts 
that  were  in  their  nature  testamentary  or  made 
with  the  intent  to  defeat  the  law.  It  was  most 
likely  that  the  law  would  induce  more  liberal  giv- 
ing while  alive,  both  to  assist  dependents  and  for 
benevolent  purposes. 

As  to  whether  the  disposition  of  property  upon 
the  death  of  the  owner  was  within  the  control  of 
the  legislative  power  of  the  State,  it  should  be 
said  that  there  never  was  a  time  in  the  history  of 
the  law  when  such  disposition  was  not  regulated 
by  the  State.  No  State,  as  far  as  known,  had 
seen  fit  to  impose  any  constitutional  restriction 
upon  the  exercise  of  this  power.  Both  in  England 


196  HIGHER   GROUND. 

and  in  this  country  the  power  to  dispose  of  prop- 
erty by  will  was  the  creature  of  the  statute.  The 
statutes  of  wills  of  the  different  States  were  al- 
most as  variant  as  the  statutes  of  descent.  There 
was  no  constitutional  restriction  upon  the  right  of 
the  legislature  to  make  and  change  such  laws  to 
suit  the  wishes  of  the  people,  nor  was  there  any 
vested  right  standing  in  the  way. 

There  was  a  most  serious  and  growing  discon- 
tent over  the  relations  of  property  to  our  social 
and  political  welfare,  but  there  was  a  wide  differ- 
ence of  opinion  as  to  where  the  fault  lay  and  how 
it  could  be  remedied.  The  committee  did  not 
profess  to  be  able  to  solve  the  difficulty  entirely, 
but  undertook  to  give  some  substantial  reasons 
why  the  recommendations  referred  to  would  at 
least  have  a  favorable  tendency,  extending  with 
increasing  efficiency  far  into  the  future.  To  pre- 
vent the  accumulation  of  large  estates  in  particu- 
lar families,  through  inheritance  and  devises,  was 
one  of  the  distinguishing  features  in  the  policy  of 
this  country  and  lay  at  the  foundation  of  our  sys- 
tem of  government,  exercising  a  salutary  influence 
scarcely  less  powerful  than  the  elective  franchise 
itself.  The  committee  did  not  wish  to  be  under- 
stood as  agreeing  with  the  notion  that  it  was  either 
practicable  or  desirable  to  produce  an  equality  as 
to  property,  but,  on  the  contrary,  indorsed  Chan- 
cellor Kent's  view  that  "  the  sense  of  property  is 
graciously  bestowed  upon  mankind  for  the  pur- 


APPENDIX.  197 

pose  of  rousing  them  from  sloth  and  stimulating 
them  to  action  ;  and  so  long  as  the  right  of  acqui- 
sition is  exercised  in  conformity  to  the  social  rela- 
tions and  the  moral  obligations  which  spring  from 
them  it  ought  to  be  sacredly  protected."  The 
difficulty  was  that  the  laws,  as  they  now  stood, 
fell  short  in  accomplishing  what  they  were  de- 
signed to  do  and  once  did  well.  The  considera- 
tion that  was  uppermost  was  the  safety  of  property 
itself. 

The  committee  did  not  favor  in  that  recommen- 
dation such  a  change  in  the  laws  of  inheritance  as 
would  affect  the  great  majority  of  estates,  but 
only  those  that  were  obnoxious  to  the  spirit  of 
our  institutions,  the  "  abnormally  large  fortunes," 
which  absorbed  and  took  out  of  circulation  large 
blocks  of  wealth  and  gave  to  their  possess- 
ors an  undue  prominence  and  influence  in  the 
affairs  of  the  country.  Such  accumulations  of 
wealth  resulted  in  discontent  that  was  rapidly  and 
steadily  growing.  The  church  could  do  much  by 
its  teachings  and  ministrations,  but  it  was  for  the 
State  to  correct  the  source  of  the  unhappy  condi- 
tion of  things.  Reform  could  only  be  accom- 
plished by  appealing  to  the  self-interest  of  the  peo- 
ple and  not  by  running  counter  to  it.  No  man  in 
his  natural  sympathies  would  be  willing  to  put  his 
earning  in  a  common  pot  to  be  doled  out  to  him 
from  a  common  crib,  or  to  be  driven  to  his  daily 
toil  by  a  common  overseer,  —  the  practical  out- 


198  HIGHER   GROUND. 

come  of  Socialism.  Contentment  and  safety  lay 
in  keeping  good  the  promise  of  our  free  institu- 
tions, in  giving  to  every  man  as  nearly  as  might 
be  an  equal  chance  with  every  other  man.  Under 
a  wise  system  of  property-law  the  number  of  the 
unsuccessful  might  be  kept  down  to  a  small  per 
cent  of  the  whole,  —  far  below  the  danger  point. 
A  more  general  diffusion  of  property  would  not 
interfere  with  the  carrying  forward  of  great  enter- 
prises nor  damp  the  ardor  of  business  if  a  reason- 
able limitation  were  fixed. 

Any  one  can  see  at  a  glance  that  what  the 
Illinois  lawyers  wish  to  accomplish  can  be  done 
much  more  easily  by  the  succession  tax  and  some 
of  the  French  rules  of  inheritance,  while  at  the 
same  time  by  means  of  education  the  people  can 
be  made  to  go  up  higher. 

In  the  Legislature  of  Illinois,  session  of  1887, 
the  following  among  other  proceedings  were  had: 

HOUSE  BILL  —  No.  233. 
35th  Assembly  Illinois.  January,  1887. 

Introduced  by  Mr.  Collins's  special  committee,  Jan- 
uary 28,  1887. 

First  reading  January  28,  1887,  ordered  printed  and 
referred  to  Committee  on  Judiciary. 

The  Special  Committee,  to  whom  was  referred  the 
preparation  of  a  bill  to  restrict  the  amount  any  person 


APPENDIX.  199 

or  corporation  may  take  by  descent  or  will  from  the 
same  decedent,  respectfully  report  the  following  bill. 
W.  H.  COLLINS,  Chairman. 

A  Bill  for  an  Act  to  restrict  the  Amount  any  Person 
or  Corporation  may  take  by  Descent  or  Will  from 
the  same  Decedent. 

SECT.  i.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  People  of  the  State 
of  Illinois,  represented  in  the  General  Assembly,  No 
person  shall,  by  will  or  testament,  devise  or  bequeath, 
either  in  trust  or  otherwise,  more  in  value  or  amount, 
to  the  same  person,  than  as  follows,  to  wit :  To  his  or 
her  surviving  wife  or  husband,  not  more  than  the  sum 
or  value  of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  or  if  the 
estate  of  decedent,  is  in  whole  or  in  part,  in  land, 
not  more  than  fifteen  hundred  acres  of  land;  to  a 
child  of  the  testator,  or  of  his  or  her  wife  or  husband, 
or  a  legally  adopted  child,  not  more  than  the  sum  of 
five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  or  if  the  estate  or  dece- 
dent is  in  whole  or  in  part  in  land,  not  more  than  fif- 
teen hundred  acres  of  land ;  to  the  descendants  of  a 
child,  in  case  of  the  death  of  the  child,  not  more  than 
by  this  section  might  be  given  to  the  child  if  she  or 
he  were  living ;  to  any  other  person  or  corporation, 
not  more  than  the  sum  or  value  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  ;  and  any  devise  or  bequest  shall  be  valid 
to  such  amount  or  value,  and  no  more.  This  section 
shall  not  apply  to  devises  or  bequests  for  educational 
or  benevolent  purposes. 

SECT  2.  No  person  shall  be  capable  of  taking  by  de- 
scent or  distribution  either  of  the  real  or  personal  estate 
of  any  person  who  shall  die  after  the  taking  effect  of  this 


200  HIGHER   GROUND. 

act,  more  in  value  and  amount  as  follows,  to  wit:  A 
surviving  husband  or  wife  or  child,  or  a  descendant  of 
a  child  when  he  can  take  directly  and  not  by  represen- 
tation, not  to  exceed  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  or 
if  estate  of  decedent  is  in  whole  or  in  part  in  land,  not 
more  than  fifteen  hundred  acres  of  land.  The  de- 
scendants of  a  child  taking  by  representation  may 
take  the  same  that  the  person  he  or  she  represents 
might  have  taken  if  he  or  she  were  living.  No  other 
person  entitled  to  take  by  descent  or  distribution  shall 
be  capable  of  taking  from  the  same  decedent  more 
than  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  When  the  estate 
is  more  than  sufficient  to  give  to  the  persons  first  enti- 
tled to  take  the  full  amount  to  which  they  are  limited 
by  this  act,  the  balance,  or  so  much  thereof  as  may  be 
sufficient  to  give  to  each  of  them  the  amount  they  may 
take  under  the  limitations  contained  in  this  act,  shall 
go  to  the  kin  of  the  deceased  standing  next  in  kinship 
after  those  first  entitled  to  take  under  the  laws  of  de- 
scent in  their  degree  and  their  representatives.  If 
there  is  more  than  sufficient  to  give  each  of  those 
standing  in  that  degree  of  kinship  and  entitled  to  take 
the  amount  he  or  she  may  take  under  this  act,  the  bal- 
ance, or  so  much  thereof  as  may  be  sufficient  to  give 
to  each  of  those  the  amount  he  or  she  may  take  under 
the  limitations  of  this  act,  shall  go  to  those  standing 
in  the  next  succeeding  degree  of  kinship  to  the  de- 
ceased and  their  representatives.  The  like  rule  shall 
be  applied  to  any  surplus,  so  long  as  there  shall  be 
any,  until  the  whole  estate  is  divided  among  the  kin- 
dred of  the  deceased,  preferring  those  standing  near- 
est to  the  deceased,  to  the  extent  he  or  she  may  take 
under  the  limitations  of  this  act.  When  there  is  not 


APPENDIX.  201 

sufficient  to  give  to  each  of  the  persons  standing  in  a 
certain  degree  of  kinship  and  entitled  to  share  the  full 
amount  he  or  she  might  take,  such  part  of  the  estate 
shall  be  divided  among  them  and  those  entitled  to 
take  by  representation  in  equal  shares,  according  to 
the  rules  of  descent  heretofore  existing.  If  any  bal- 
ance remains  after  every  person  capable  of  taking  the 
same  shall  have  taken  the  amount  or  value  he  or  she  is 
entitled  to  take,  the  same  shall  escheat  to  the  State,  as 
in  cases  where  there  is  no  person  capable  of  inheriting 
the  estate.  If  in  any  case  a  person  shall  be  entitled 
to  take  both  by  descent  and  by  will  from  the  same  de- 
cedent, the  aggregate  in  value  or  amount  he  or  she 
may  take  shall  not  exceed  the  amount  he  or  she  is 
capable  of  taking  by  one  of  these  ways. 

SECT.  3.  The  inventory  required  by  law  to  be  made 
by  an  executor  or  administrator,  in  addition  to  the  mat- 
ters now  required  to  be  stated  therein,  shall  also  state 
the  value  of  each  piece  or  parcel  of  real  estate  of 
which  the  deceased  died  possessed  of  or  was  in  any 
way  entitled,  and  the  total  value  of  the  whole  estate, 
real  and  personal ;  which  statement  of  the  total  value 
of  said  estate  shall  be  conclusive  upon  all  persons 
who  shall  claim  any  interest  in  such  estate  by  descent 
or  under  the  will  of  the  deceased,  by  virtue  of  this  act, 
unless  the  same  is  changed  as  hereinafter  provided. 
Upon  a  sworn  petition  of  one  or  more  persons  inter- 
ested in  the  estate  as  heirs  or  distributors,  showing 
that  such  total  value  is  too  low  or  too  high,  the  court 
shall  appoint  three  disinterested  persons  to  revalue 
the  estate,  who,  being  first  sworn  to  make  a  just  and 
true  valuation  thereof,  shall  revalue  the  same  and 
make  return  of  their  valuation,  which,  unless  set  aside 


2O2  HIGHER    GROUND. 

for  fraud  or  mistake,  shall  be  conclusive  as  to  the 
rights  of  all  persons  claiming  or  to  claim  any  interest 
in  said  estate  by  descent  or  under  the  will  of  the  de- 
ceased. In  all  cases  where  a  specific  article  or  piece 
of  real  or  personal  property  is  given  or  devised  by 
will,  the  value  thereof  may  be  inquired  into  in  such 
way  as  the  Probate  Court  shall  direct. 

SECT.  4.  In  the  proof  of  heirship  it  shall  not  be  ne- 
cessary to  show  other  than  the  heirs  who  will  be  entitled 
to  share  in  the  estate,  taking  into  account  the  limita- 
tions contained  in  this  act.  Only  such  heirs  or  dis- 
tributees as  shall  appear  to  be  entitled  to  share  in  the 
estate  need  be  notified  of  the  final  settlement  by  the 
executor  or  administrator. 

SECT.  5.  Before  the  final  settlement  of  the  estate,  or 
with  a  view  to  making  such  final  settlement,  the  court 
shall  find  the  total  value  of  the  estate,  and  who  are 
the  heirs  or  persons  interested  therein  as  heirs,  lega- 
tees, devisees,  or  distributees,  and  the  nature  and 
amount  of  their  respective  interests,  and  may  order 
the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  real  or  personal  estate,  or 
both,  to  be  sold,  and  the  proceeds  brought  into  court 
for  distribution  according  to  the  rights  of  the  parties, 
or  may  declare  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  respec- 
tive parties  in  the  respective  pieces  and  parcels  of 
real  estate,  and  may  make  any  and  all  orders  that  may 
be  necessary  to  carry  into  effect  the  provisions  of  this 
act. 

SECT.  6.  Every  gift,  conveyance,  transfer,  or  dispo- 
sition of  any  real  or  personal  estate  made  with  inten- 
tion to  defeat  the  operation  of  this  act  shall  be  void. 

SECT.  7.  All  acts  or  parts  of  acts  inconsistent  with 
the  provisions  of  this  act  are  hereby  repealed. 


APPENDIX.  2O3 

Among  the  acts  passed  by  the  Legislature  of 
Illinois,  session  of  1887,  and  approved  by  the 
governor,  is  one  drawn  by  Hon.  Joshua  C.  Knick- 
erbocker, judge  of  the  Probate  Court  of  Cook 
County,  the  only  object  of  which  is  to  make  that 
court  self-sustaining.  The  act  establishes  a  grad- 
uated tax  upon  estates  in  providing  for  a  docket 
fee  graduated  in  proportion  to  the  value  of  the 
estate. 

FEES   OF   CLERKS   OF   PROBATE   COURTS. 
Approved  June  6, 1887.     In  force  July  i,  1887. 

On  application  for  the  grant  of  letters  testa- 
mentary, of  administration,  guardianship,  or  con- 
servatorship,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  applicant 
to  state  in  his  or  her  petition  the  value  of  all  the 
real  and  personal  estate  of  such  deceased  person, 
infant,  idiot,  insane  person,  lunatic,  distracted 
person,  drunkard,  or  spendthrift,  as  the  case  may 
be,  and  on  the  grant  of  letters  testamentary, 
administration,  guardianship,  or  conservatorship, 
there  shall  be  paid  to  the  clerk  of  said  probate 
court  from  the  proper  estate  and  charge  as  costs 
a  docket  fee  as  follows  :  — 

When  the  estate  does  not  exceed  $5,000  .  .  $5.00 
When  the  estate  exceeds  $5,000  and  does  not 

exceed  $20,000 10.00 

When  the  estate  exceeds  $20,000  and  does 

not  exceed  $50,000 20.00 


204  HIGHER   GROUND. 

When   the  estate  exceeds  $50.000  and  does 

not  exceed  $100,000 50.00 

When  the  estate  exceeds  $100,000  and  does 

not  exceed  $300,000 100.00 

When  the  estate  exceeds  $300,000  and  does 

not  exceed  $1,000,000 250.00 

In  all  cases  when  such  estate  amounts  to 

$r, 000,000  and  upwards 1,000.00 

In  all  cases  where  any  deceased  person  shall  leave 
him  or  her  surviving  a  widow  or  children  resident  of 
this  State,  who  are  entitled  out  of  said  estate  to  a 
widow's  or  child's  award,  and  the  entire  estate,  real 
and  personal,  of  such  deceased  person  shall  not  ex- 
ceed $2,000,  and  in  case  of  any  minor  whose  estate, 
real  and  personal,  does  not  exceed  the  sum  of  $1,000, 
and  whose  father  is  dead,  and  in  all  cases  of  any  idiot, 
insane  person,  lunatic,  or  a  distracted  person,  drunk- 
ard, or  spendthrift,  when  such  person  has  a  wife  or 
infant  child  dependent  on  such  person  for  support,  and 
the  entire  estate  of  such  person  shall  not  exceed  the 
sum  of  $2,000,  the  probate  judge  (by  order  of  court) 
shall  remit  and  release  to  such  estate  all  of  the  costs 
herein  provided  for. 


APPENDIX.  205 


V. 

[From  The  New  York  Times,  May  22,  1887.] 
COLLEGE   ENDOWMENTS. 

NOT  many  Americans  are  really  aware  of  the 
enormous  sums  that  are  annually  going  to  swell 
the  endowments  of  institutions  for  learning.  A 
generation  ago  it  is  probable  that  there  was  not 
a  college  in  the  country  of  which  the  available 
capital  was  a  million  dollars.  In  those  days,  and 
in  days  much  later,  a  gift  of  thirty  thousand  dol- 
lars or  forty  thousand  dollars  to  a  college  was 
hailed  as  munificent,  and  indeed  it  was  so.  With 
the  higher  rate  of  interest  at  that  time  and  with 
the  extremely  frugal  notions  that  prevailed  among 
successful  merchants  of  what  a  professor  could 
live  on,  such  a  sum  sufficed  to  give  a  college  a 
new  professorship,  of  which  the  incumbent  was 
able  to  support  himself  quite  as  well  in  a  country 
college  as  he  would  have  been  able  to  do  in  a 
country  parish,  which  was  for  the  most  part  the 
alternative.  Half  a  million  would  have  built  and 
"  stocked  "  a  college  and  supplied  it  with  ten  pro- 
fessors, even  had  the  income  derived  from  room- 
rent  and  tuition  been  nothing  at  all. 

The  first  provision  for  a  new  college  on  what 
we  now  regard  as  a  liberal  scale  was  that  made 


206  HIGHER   GROUND. 

by  EZRA  CORNELL  twenty  years  ago.  A  great  bene- 
faction it  was  and  remains,  but  in  amount  it  has 
since  been  very  greatly  outdone.  The  Johns 
Hopkins  is  another  example  of  a  college  doing 
valuable  work  which  owes  its  existence  to  the 
generosity  of  an  individual.  The  endowment  of 
the  new  university  founded  by  LELAND  STANFORD 
appears  to  be  considerably  over  ten  millions.  It 
is  doubtful  whether  any  university  in  the  world 
has  ever  had  an  endowment  at  all  comparable  to 
this  at  the  beginning.  The  English  universities 
were  slow  aggregations  from  slender  beginnings, 
and  it  would  be  misleading  to  compare  them  with 
the  university  which  Senator  STANFORD  proposes 
to  start  full-grown.  But  taking  all  the  colleges  of 
Oxford  or  of  Cambridge  together,  and  allowing 
for  the  depreciation  in  money,  or  rather  confining 
the  comparison  to  what  can  be  done  with  the 
money,  it  is  doubtful  whether  either  university, 
when  the  chief  colleges  had  all  been  founded,  say 
at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  represented 
an  endowment  equivalent  to  that  of  the  new  uni- 
versity. This  is  only  the  most  conspicuous  of 
many  gifts  for  education  that  in  any  other  age  or 
country  would  be  called  princely.  A  citizen  of 
Worcester,  Mass.,  has  lately  given  a  million  for 
the  foundation  of  a  university  in  that  city,  and  has 
promised  to  supplement  this  ample  endowment. 
And  perhaps  the  strongest  proof  that  these  great 
endowments  have  become  so  common  as  to  at- 


APPENDIX.  207 

tract  no  notice  is  the  dismissal,  in  one  line  of  a 
dispatch  about  the  will  of  the  late  WASHINGTON 
DE  PAUVV,  of  Indiana,  of  the  fact  that  he  has  be- 
queathed $1,250,000  to  the  De  Pauw  University. 

There  is  an  enormous  potentiality  of  human 
culture  in  this  recital.  It  is  greatly  to  be  hoped 
that  it  may  not  be  defeated  by  a  narrow  or  tem- 
porary interpretation,  on  the  part  either  of  the 
givers  or  of  their  Trustees,  of  the  meaning  of  the 
word  education.  We  shall  offend  nobody,  we 
trust,  if  we  suggest  that  if  a  member  of  the 
Campbellite  Baptist  persuasion  who  had  pros- 
pered in  life  were  at  his  death  to  leave  a  million 
dollars  for  the  foundation  of  a  university  in  which 
the  doctrines  of  the  Campbellite  Baptists  were  to 
be  faithfully  taught,  and  from  which  all  learning 
and  science,  falsely  so-called,  inconsistent  with 
these  doctrines  should  be  excluded,  educated  men 
and  lovers  of  education  would  deplore  the  waste 
of  money  involved  in  such-  a  bequest  with  such  a 
restriction.  Yet  this  is  what  is  done  when  any 
man  saddles  posterity  with  his  own  view  of  truth 
and  learning.  Either  his  bequest  will  be  useless, 
or  at  all  events  less  useful  than  it  might  have 
been,  or  it  will  be  perverted  very  far  from  his  own 
intention,  to  the  moral  injury  of  everybody  con- 
cerned in  the  perversion.  To  found  a  school  of 
apologetics  is  quite  a  different  thing  from  found- 
ing a  place  of  education.  "  I  am  bound  to  say," 
said  CARLYLE  in  his  famous  address  at  Edinburgh, 


208  HIGHER   GROUND. 

"  that  it  does  not  appear  as  if  endowments  were 
the  real  soul  of  the  matter.  The  English,  for  ex- 
ample, are  the  richest  people  in  the  world  for 
endowments  in  their  universities,  and  yet  it  is  an 
evident  fact  that  since  the  time  of  BENTLEY  you 
cannot  name  anybody  among  them  who  has  gained 
a  European  name  in  scholarship  or  constituted  a 
point  of  revolution  in  the  pursuits  of  men  in  that 
way.  One  man  that  actually  did  constitute  a  re- 
volution was  the  son  of  a  poor  weaver  in  Saxony, 
who  edited  his  Tibullus  in  Dresden  in  a  poor 
comrade's  garret,  and  who,  while  editing  his  Tib- 
ullus had  to  gather  peasecods  on  the  streets  and 
boil  them  for  his  dinner.  That  was  his  endow- 
ment. His  name  was  HEYNE."  It  is  safe  to 
suggest  that  part  of  the  superiority  of  German 
scholarship  over  English  comes  from  the  fact  that 
disinterested  inquiry  has  from  their  origin  been 
the  spirit  of  the  German  universities,  and  that  the 
comparative  ineffectiveness  of  the  English  endow- 
ments has  come  in  part  from  the  restrictions  im- 
posed by  the  givers.  No  man  who  assumes  that 
what  passes  for  the  truth  in  his  own  mind  or  in 
his  own  time  will  pass  as  such  for  all  time  ought 
to  let  that  notion  hamper  his  gifts  for  education. 
He  will  do  the  best  that  is  possible  by  adopting 
EZRA  CORNELL'S  excellent  motto :  "  I  wish  to 
found  a  university  where  any  person  may  obtain 
instruction  in  any  study." 


APPENDIX.  209 

[Associated  Press  Despatch^ 
THE    DE    PAUW    WILL. 

Proceedings  to  set  it  aside  begun  by  the  Dead  Million- 
naire's  First  Child. 

NEW  ALBANY,  IND.,  Aug.  16,  1887. 
THIS  city  is  greatly  excited  to-night  over  the 
news  of  a  suit  filed  here  to-day  to  set  aside  the 
will  of  the  late  Washington  C.  De  Pauw,  who  died 
worth  $6,000,000.  The  attorneys  who  filed  the 
suit  are  C.  L.  and  Harry  E.  Jewett.  Their  client, 
the  plaintiff,  is  Mrs.  Sarah  Ellen  Mclntosh,  wife 
of  J.  A.  Mclntosh,  of  Salem,  Indiana.  Mr.  De 
Pauw  had  three  wives.  The  plaintiff  is  his  first 
and  only  child  by  the  first  wife.  Two  sons  are 
living,  the  only  children  by  the  second  wife,  and 
the  third  wife  and  her  daughter  survive  Mr.  De 
Pauw.  To  Mrs.  Mclntosh  he  willed  two  poor 
farms,  not  worth  $5,000  all  told,  while  to  his 
widow  and  his  other  three  surviving  children  he 
willed  what  will  amount  to  $1,000,000  each.  Mrs. 
Mclntosh  married  against  her  father's  wish,  but 
she  thought  he  forgave  her,  as  he  visited  her  and 
was  otherwise  kind  to  her,  and  both  she  and  her 
father  were  zealous  members  of  the  Methodist 
church.  She  sues  to  obtain  one-sixth  of  the  es- 
tate, and  makes  the  natural  heirs  and  all  other 
leatees  defendants. 


210  HIGHER   GROUND. 


VI. 

[from  the  Chicago  Tribune,  July  16,  1887.] 
THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  FUTURE. 

THE  memorable  convention  of  the  National 
Educational  Association  stands  adjourned.  While 
it  has  not  taken  a  decided  position  on  the  ques- 
tion of  manual  training,  which  is  destined  to  be 
the  education  of  the  future,  still  progress  has 
been  made.  At  the  proceedings  Thursday  the 
President  of  the  Department  of  Industrial  Educa- 
tion made  a  strong  plea  for  it  and  argued  that  it 
should  go  hand  in  hand  with  the  academical  sys- 
tem, and  that  manual  work  was  favorable  in  its 
influence  upon  the  purely  intellectual.  Professor 
Woodward  of  St.  Louis,  whose  manual  training 
school  has  a  national  reputation,  said  :  "  It  has 
been  found  that  there  are  methods  of  teaching  and 
employing  children  in  kindergarten  schools,  and  I 
believe  that  boys  of  fourteen  can  also  be  taught 
in  manual  training  without  the  book-work  suffer- 
ing a  loss."  Numerous  other  instructors  gave 
their  testimony  as  to  its  value,  among  them  Pro- 
fessor Caruthers  of  Cincinnati,  who  said  that  in 
that  city  "  drones  had  become  hard-working  stu- 
dents." At  the  dinner  given  by  the  Prang  Edu- 


APPENDIX.  211 

cational  Company,  which  was  attended  by  a  large 
representation  of  the  most  prominent  people  iden- 
tified with  art  and  industrial  education  in  this 
country,  there  were  numerous  enthusiastic  ex- 
pressions of  opinion  in  favor  of  the  new  depart- 
ure. At  the  meeting  of  the  Association  yesterday 
morning  Gen.  Francis  Walker,  the  President  of 
the  famous  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology, 
whose  certificates  are  of  more  practical  value  to  a 
boy  entering  the  world  of  work  than  the  diploma 
of  any  school  or  college,  made  an  argument  for 
manual  training  which  carried  great  weight  with  it, 
and  was  listened  to  with  unusual  interest. 

The  report  adopted  by  the  convention  recognizes 
the  value  of  the  industrial  art.  The  next  conven- 
tion will  go  farther,  we  believe,  and  not  only  rec- 
ognize its  value,  but  will  act  upon  it  and  suggest 
the  plan  for  adopting  it  as  part  of  the  free-school 
system.  It  is  growing  rapidly.  The  school  ex- 
hibit is  itself  a  silent  but  most  powerful  argument 
in  its  favor  and  a  testimonial  to  its  remarkable 
growth.  It  is  filled  with  the  results  of  manual 
training  both  in  art  and  industry,  and  these  ex- 
hibits dwarf  all  the  others  both  in  interest  and  in 
variety.  They  stand  there  an  unanswerable  argu- 
ment. As  the  system  which  educates  head  and 
hand  together ;  which  arouses  enthusiasm  in  the 
pupil ;  which  gives  an  added  value  to  his  academi- 
cal training ;  which  develops  the  ideal  faculty  and 
tends  to  bring  forward  the  artistic  talent  of  the 


212  HIGHER   GROUND. 

country  ;  which  gives  to  the  boy  and  girl  some- 
thing which  is  of  practical  use  to  them  ;  which 
will  send  them  out  into  the  world  better  prepared 
to  make  a  living  ;  which  gives  them  habits  of  in- 
dustry, and  which  educates  the  hand  and  head  to 
labor  instead  of  educating  the  wits  to  avoid  labor, 
—  this  system  is  bound  to  be  the  future  reliance 
of  our  free  schools.  It  has  come  to  stay.  As 
President  Ordway  said  in  his  address  :  "  We  need 
no  longer  discuss  whether  the  work  shall  be  intro- 
duced into  the  public  schools.  It  is  already  there 
and  will  stay  there.  What  we  need  to  discuss  is 
the  methods  of  teaching  and  what  shall  be  taught." 
The  Association  has  recognized  the  value  of  the 
principle.  Another  Association,  we  believe,  will 
fix  its  definite  status  in  the  school  system,  and 
provide  the  methods  of  its  operation.  It  is  the 
education  of  the  future. 


THE   CHICAGO   MANUAL  TRAINING 
SCHOOL  CATALOGUE,  1886-87. 

Course  of  Study  and  Practice. 

JUNIOR   YEAR. 

(i.)   Mathematics.  —  Algebra;  Geometry. 
(2.)   Science.  —  Physiology ;  Physical  Geography. 
(3.)   Language.  —  English   Language   and   Litera- 
ture ;  or  Latin- 


APPENDIX.  2 1 3 

(4.)  Drawing.  —  Freehand  Model  and  Object  ; 
Projection  ;  Machine ;  Perspective. 

(5.)  Shop-work.  —  Carpentry,  Joinery,  Wood-Turn- 
ing, Pattern-Making,  Proper  Care  and  Use  of  Tools. 


MIDDLE  YEAR. 

(i.)  Mathematics.  —  Geometry;  Plane  Trigonom- 
etry. 

(2.)    Science.  —  Physics . 

(3.)  Language.  —  General  History  ;  English  Lit- 
erature ;  or  Latin. 

(4.)  Drawing.  —  Orthographic  Projection  and 
Shadows ;  Line  and  Brush  Shading ;  Isometric  Pro- 
jection and  Shadows ;  Details  of  Machinery  ;  Machines 
from  Measurement. 

(5.)  Shop-work.  —  Moulding,  Casting  ;  Forging, 
Welding,  Tempering  ;  Soldering,  Brazing. 

SENIOR  YEAR. 

(i.)   Mathematics.  —  Mechanics  ;  Book-keeping. 

(2.)  Science.  —  Chemistry;  or  Descriptive  Geome- 
try and  Higher  Algebra. 

(3.)  Language,  etc.  —  English  Literature,  Civil  Gov- 
ernment, Political  Economy;  or  Latin  ;  or  French. 

(4.)  Drawing.  —  Machine  from  Measurement ; 
Building  from  Measurement;  Architectural  Perspec- 
tive. 

(5.)  Machine  Shop-work.  —  Chipping,  Filing,  Fit- 
ting, Turning,  Drilling,  Planing,  etc.  Study  of  Ma- 
chinery, including  the  Management  and  Care  of  Steam 
Engines  and  Boilers. 


214  HIGHER   GROUND. 

Instruction  is  given  each  year  in  the  production, 
properties,  and  uses  of  the  materials — wood,  iron, 
brass,  etc.  —  used  in  that  year. 

Throughout  the  course,  one  hour  each  day  is 
given  to  Drawing,  and  two  hours  each  day  to  Shop- 
work.  The  remainder  of  each  school-day  is  devoted 
to  study  and  recitation.  A  diploma  testifying  to 
scholarship  and  skill  is  given  on  graduation. 

Equipment. 

The  equipment  of  the  mechanical  department 
of  the  school  is  mainly  as  follows  :  — 

WOOD-ROOMS. 

50  Cabinet-maker's-benches ;  24  Speed-Lathes ; 
i  Circular  Saw ;  i  Scroll  Saw ;  i  Boring-machine ; 
i  Planer;  I  Grindstone;  i  Shoot-plane  ;  Bench,  Lathe, 
and  General  Tools  for  ninety-six  boys. 

FOUNDRY. 

2  Furnaces  ;  Crucibles,  Troughs,  Flasks,  Trowels, 
Rammers,  Sieves,  and  other  apparatus  for  sixty-six 
boys. 

FORGE-ROOM. 

24  Forges  ;  23  Anvils ;  i  Emery-wheel ;  I  Shears  ; 
3  Vises ;  i  Blower ;  2  Exhaust  Fans ;  Tongs,  Ham- 
mers, Fullers,  Flatters,  Swages,  etc.,  for  sixty-six 
boys. 


APPENDIX.  2 1 5 

MACHINE-SHOP. 

7  Engine-Lathes,  1 2-inch  swing,  6- feet  bed;  i  En- 
gine-Lathe, i6-inch  swing,  8-feet  bed  ;  2  Speed-Lathes; 
r  Planer,  6-feet  bed;  i  Shaper ;  i  Drill;  i  Grindstone; 
I  Emery-wheel;  15  Benches;  15  Vises;  Lathe  and 
Vise  Tools,  such  as  Chucks,  Boring-bars,  Taps,  Dies, 
Hammers,  Chisels,  Files,  etc.,  sufficient  for  thirty-three 
boys  ;  also,  I  Forge,  I  Anvil,  i  Carpenter's-bench, 
with  tools. 

Power  is  supplied  by  a  Corliss  engine  of  52  horse 
power  and  by  two  steel  boilers. 

The  Work  of  the  School. 

The  special  feature  of  the  school,  in  which  it 
differs  from  the  ordinary  high  school,  is  its  MAN- 
UAL TRAINING.  Notwithstanding  the  prominence 
given  to  this  part  of  its  course,  experience  shows 
that  its  mathematical  and  scientific  work  need  not 
be  inferior  to  that  of  the  best  high  schools. 

Education,  not  manufacture,  is  the  idea  under- 
lying the  manual  training.  Consequently,  the 
material  products  of  the  shops  consist  chiefly  of 
exercises  designed  to  develop  skill  in  the  use  of 
tools.  The  educational  value  of  construction  is 
also  recognized,  and  the  course  embraces  a  num- 
ber of  finished  articles. 

Some  idea  of  the  pupils'  work  in  the  drawing 
and  mechanical  departments  may  be  obtained  from 
the  following  partial  list  of  the  annual  exhibit  of 
June  23,  1886. 


2l6  HIGHER   GROUND. 


JUNIOR   CLASS. 

In  Drawing:  Freehand  and  mechanical  drawings 
of  models  and  tools ;  problems  in  Plane  Geometry ; 
4,134  drawings. 

/;/  Wood-room:  Mortises,  tenons,  dovetails,  panels, 
picture-frames,  foundry-flasks  ;  umbrella-stands  ;  cases 
of  drawers  ;  tables  ;  cylinder  office  desk ;  roof-trusses  ; 
test-tube  racks  ;  12  cabinet-maker's-benches  ;  gavels; 
vases;  patterns  of  bells,  bell-stands,  oilers,  hexagonal 
nuts,  globe-valves,  pipe-elbows,  returns;  offsets  ;  core- 
boxes  for  the  four  last  named,  etc. 

MIDDLE   CLASS. 

In  Drawing:  Orthographic  projection,  and  line 
shading,  orthographic  shadows,  machines  from  meas- 
urement; 1,700  drawings. 

In  Foundry :  Moulding  and  casting  of  nuts,  glands, 
valves,  sheave-pulleys,  spur  and  bevel  gears,  bells,  oil- 
cups,  drawer-pulls,  letter-clips,  brackets,  etc. 

In  Forge-room :  Exercises  in  drawing,  upsetting, 
bending;  open  eyes,  gate-hooks,  hasps,  staples,  nails, 
bolts ;  square-headed  lag-screw  blanks ;  hexagon- 
headed  bolt  blanks ;  blacksmith's-tongs  ;  rings  ;  chains  ; 
centre-punches,  etc.,  all  of  iron.  In  steel,  centre- 
punches  ;  chisels  ;  screw-drivers ;  diamond-pointed 
and  side  lathe-tools ;  riveting,  claw,  and  ball-pene 
hammers ;  brass-turning  tools  ;  springs ;  fullers  ;  drills, 
etc. 

In  Wood-room:  One  complete  set  of  patterns  for  a 
6X9  steam-engine,  designed  by  Assistant-Engineer 
Bennett. 


APPENDIX.  217 


SENIOR   CLASS. 

In  Drawing:  Shaded  drawings  of  globe,  safety, 
and  hose  valves ;  details  of  steam-engine ;  engine-lathe ; 
drill-press  ;  planer ;  shaper ;  stationary  and  locomotive 
engines  ;  floor-plans,  overhead  work,  elevations  and 
perspectives  of  school-building,  etc.,  —  all  from  meas- 
urement ;  1 20  drawings. 

In  Machine-Shop :  Exercises  in  chipping  and  filing; 
boring-bar ;  boring-carriage ;  clamps  and  posts  for 
planer;  three  six-horse-power  slide-valve  steam-engines 
made  from  the  castings,  to  drawings  made  by  the  pupils 
from  a  finished  engine  of  the  same  pattern  ;  bolts  and 
nuts  for  engines  ;  emery-grinder  ;  belt-tightener ;  taps 
and  dies ;  milling-arbor  ;  milling-cutters ;  face-plates, 
etc. 

Among  the  "  projects  "  of  the  Senior  Class, 
made  from  their  own  drawings,  and  generally 
from  their  own  designs,  were  the  following :  Four 
steam-engines  (in  addition  to  the  three  named 
above) ;  four  dynamos  ;  one  die-stock,  with  six 
taps  and  six  dies ;  one  4o-lb.  brass  yacht-cannon 
and  carriage ;  one  set  geologist's-hammers  and 
chisels  ;  one  induction-coil ;  one  link-motion  ;  one 
speed-lathe.  Two  of  these  steam-engines,  one 
3X6,  the  other  4X6,  were  from  the  pupils'  own 
designs,  drawings,  and  patterns. 


2l8  HIGHER  GROUND. 

Graduates,  1886. 

Moritz  William  Boehm,  with  Crane  Brothers  Ele- 
vator Company,  Teacher  of  Drawing,  Evening  High 
School. 

Stuart  Dunlevy  Boynton. 

Gary  Nathan  Calkins,  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology. 

Allan  Montgomery  Clement,  with  Clement,  Bane,  & 
Company,  Manufacturers. 

Charles  Locke  Etheridge,  Sibley  College,  Cornell 
University. 

William  Henry  Fahrney,  Chicago  College  of  Phar- 
macy. 

Samuel  Douglas  Flood,  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology. 

Arthur  Dewey  Hall,  with  St.  Nicholas  Toy  Manu- 
facturing Company. 

Philip  Harvey. 

Charles  Williams  Hawkes,  with  Crane  Brothers 
Elevator  Company. 

Charles  Gilbert  Hawley,  Sibley  College,  Cornell 
University. 

John  Porter  Hey  wood,  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology. 

Harley  Seymour  Hibbard,  with  W.  L.  B.  Jenney, 
Architect. 

Samuel  Edward  Hitt,  Sibley  College,  Cornell 
University. 

Elbridge  Byron  Keith,  Beloit  College. 

Henry  William  Klare,  Reedy  Elevator  Works. 

Robert  Allan  Lackey,  with  William  Sooy  Smith  & 
Company,  Civil  Engineers. 


APPENDIX.  219 

Joseph  Dixon  Lewis,  with  N.  K.  Fairbank  &  Com- 
pany, Manufacturers. 

James  Stuart  McDonald,  Jr.,  Assistant  Superinten- 
dent McDonald- Lawson  Manufacturing  Company. 

Charles  Messer. 

William  Otis  Moody. 

Ovington  Ross,  with  George  P.  Ross,  Manufacturer. 

Albert  Scheible,  School  of  Mechanical  Engineering, 
Purdue  University. 

Herman  Schifflin,  with  Fraser  &  Chalmers,  Manu- 
facturers. 

Emil  Henry  Seemann,  with  Frederick  Seemann, 
Manufacturer. 

Henry  Heileman  Wait,  Hyde  Park  High  School. 

Oliver  Johnson  Westcott,  with  A.  Gottlieb  &  Com- 
pany, Civil  Engineers. 


THE   ST.    LOUIS    MANUAL  TRAINING 
SCHOOL   CATALOGUE,  1886-87. 

Conditions  of  Admission. 

Candidates  for  admission  to  the  First- Year  class 
must  be  at  least  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  each 
must  present  a  certificate  of  good  moral  character 
signed  by  a  former  teacher. 

They  must  also  pass  a  good  examination  on  the 
following  subjects :  — 

i.  Arithmetic,  including  the  fundamental  rules; 
common  and  decimal  fractions  ;  the  tables  of  weights, 
measures,  and  their  use  ;  percentage  ;  and  analysis  of 


22O  HIGHER   GROUND. 

miscellaneous  problems.  Candidates  will  be  examined 
orally  in  mental  arithmetic,  including  fractions,  mixed 
numbers,  and  the  higher  multiplication-table. 

2.  Common    School    Geography,    including    map- 
drawing  from  memory. 

3.  Spelling  and  Penmanship. 

4.  The  writing  of  good  descriptive  and  narrative  Eng- 
lish, with  the  correct  use  of  capitals  and  punctuation. 

Candidates  for  the  Second-Year  class  must  be 
at  least  fifteen  years  of  age.  All  that  is  specified 
above  will  be  required  of  them,  and,  in  addition, 
the  book  studies  of  the  First- Year  class. 

Similar  requirements  apply  to  those  desiring  to 
enter  the  Third-Year  class. 

But  one  new  class  per  year  is  admitted,  namely, 
in  September. 

Vacancies  may  be  filled  at  any  time,  provided 
the  applicants  are  prepared  to  enter  existing 
classes. 

The  Course  of  Instruction 

covers  three  years,  and  embraces  five  parallel  lines, 
—  three  purely  intellectual,  and  two  both  intel- 
lectual and  manual,  —  as  follows :  — 

First  —  A  course  of  pure  Mathematics,  including 
Arithmetic,  Algebra,  Geometry,  and  Plane  Trigo- 
nometry. 

Second  —  A  course  in  Science  and  Applied 
Mathematics,  including  Physical  Geography,  Botany, 
Natural  Philosophy,  Chemistry,  Mensuration,  and 
Book-keeping. 


APPENDIX.  221 

Third —  A  course  in  Language  and  Literature,  in- 
cluding English  Grammar,  Spelling,  Composition, 
Literature,  History,  and  the  elements  of  Political 
Science  and  Economy.  Latin  and  French  are  intro- 
duced as  electives  with  English  or  Science. 

Fourth  —  A  course  in  Penmanship,  Free-Hand  and 
Mechanical  Drawing. 

Fifth  —  A  course  of  Tool  instruction,  including  Car- 
pentry, Wood-turning,  Moulding,  Brazing,  Soldering, 
Forging,  and  Bench  and  Machine  Work  in  Metals. 

The  course  in  Drawing  embraces  three  general 
divisions:  — 

1.  Free-Hand  Drawing,  designed  to  educate  the 
sense  of  form  and  proportion ;    to  teach  the  eye  to 
observe  accurately,  and  to  train  the  hand  to  rapidly 
delineate  the  forms  either  of  existing  objects   or  of 
ideals  in  the  mind. 

2.  Mechanical  Drawing,  including  the  use  of  in- 
struments ;  geometric  constructions ;  the  arrangement 
of  projections,  elevations,  plans,  and  sections  ;  also  the 
various  methods  of  representing  shades  and  shadows 
with  pen  and  brush. 

3.  Technical  Drawing  or  Draughting,  illustrating 
conventional  colors  and  signs,  systems  of  architectu- 
ral or  shop  drawings  ;  and  at  the  same  time  familiariz- 
ing the  pupil  with  the  proportions  and  details  of  various 
classes  of  machines  and  structures. 

Students  have  no  option  or  election  as  to  particular 
studies,  except  as  regards  Latin  and  French;  each 
must  conform  to  the  course  as  laid  down,  and  take 
every  branch  in  its  order. 


222  HIGHER   GROUND. 

The  arrangement  of  studies  and  shop-work  by 
years  is  substantially  as  follows:  — 

FIRST  YEAR. 

Arithmetic,  completed;  Algebra,  to  equations. 

English  Language,  its  Structure  and  use ;  Study 
of  Selected  Pieces ;  History  of  the  United  States. 

Latin  Grammar  and  Reader  may  be  taken  in  place 
of  English. 

Introduction  to  Science;  Physical  Geography  ;  Bot- 
any. 

Drawing,  Mechanical  and  Free-hand  ;  Penmanship. 

Carpentry  and  Joinery ;  Wood-Carving;  Wood- 
Turning. 

SECOND  YEAR. 

Algebra,  through  Quadratics  ;  Geometry  begun. 

Natural  Philosophy ;  Experimental  Work  in  the 
Physical  Laboratory; 1  Principles  of  Mechanics. 

English  Composition  and  Literature ;  Rhetoric; 
English  History. 

Latin  [Caesar]  may  be  taken  in  place  of  English 
and  History. 

Drawing,  Line-shading,  and  Tinting  Machines ; 
Development  of  Surfaces;  Free-Hand  Detail  Draw- 
ing;  Isometric  Projections. 

Shop-Work  —  Forging,  Drawing,  Upsetting,  Bend- 
ing, Punching,  Welding,  Tempering  ;  Pattern-making, 
Moulding,  Casting,  Soldering,  and  Brazing. 

1  In  connection  with  the  physical  laboratory  is  a  special 
work-shop  containing  work-benches,  hand  tools,  two  lathes, 
and  a  dynamo  driven  by  a  small  upright  steam-engine  built 
by  the  class  of  1886. 


APPENDIX.  223 


THIRD  YEAR. 

Geometry  continued;  Plane  Trigonometry;  Men- 
suration. 

English  Composition  and  Literature;  History; 
Ethics,  and  Political  Economy. 

French  may  be  taken  in  place  of  English  and  His- 
tory, or  in  place  of  the  Science  study. 

Physiology ;  Elements  of  Chemistry.  Students 
who  have  taken  Latin,  and  who  intend  to  enter  the 
Polytechnic  School  after  completing  the  course  in  this 
school,  will  take  History  in  the  place  of  Physiology 
and  Chemistry. 

Book-Keeping. 

Drawing,  Brush-shading,  Machine,  and  Architectu- 
ral Drawing. 

Work  in  the  Machine-Shop.  Bench-work  and 
Fitting,  Turning,  Drilling,  Planing,  Screw-cutting,  etc. 
Study  of  the  Steam-Engine. 

Execution  of  Project. 


The  Daily  Programme. 

The  school  time  of  the  pupils  is  about  equally 
divided  between  mental  and  manual  exercises. 
The  daily  session  begins  at  9  A.  M.,  and  closes  at 
3.30  P.  M.,  thirty  minutes  being  allowed  for  lunch. 
Each  pupil  has  daily  three  recitations,  one  hour  of 
drawing  or  penmanship,  and  two  hours  of  shop 
practice.  The  order  in  which  these  exercises 
follow  each  other  is  shown  in  the  accompanying 
table. 


224 


HIGHER   GROUND. 


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APPENDIX.  22  5 

Diploma  and  Certificate. 

Students  who  complete  the  course  with  credit 
in  all  its  details  will  receive  the  diploma  of  the 
school. 

Before  receiving  a  diploma  of  the  school,  each 
student  must  execute,  either  alone  or  in  connec- 
tion with  certain  specified  students,  a  project  sat- 
isfactory to  the  managers  of  the  school.  The 
project  consists  in  the  actual  construction  of  a 
machine.  The  finished  machine  must  be  accom- 
panied by  a  full  set  of  the  working-drawings  ac- 
cording to  which  the  machine  is  made.  If  it  is 
not  feasible  to  construct  the  patterns  for  castings 
of  such  machine,  proper  directions  for  their  con- 
struction must  accompany  the  drawings. 

School  Building  and  Accommodations. 

THE  TWO  CARPENTER  AND  TURNING  SHOPS. 

Each  wood-working  shop  has  uniform  accom- 
modations for  a  class  of  twenty-four  pupils. 

Each  pupil  has  one  of  the  uniform  sets  of  hand 
edge-tools  for  his  exclusive  use,  kept  in  a  locked 
drawer.  For  the  care  and  safety  of  these  tools 
he  is  held  responsible. 

The   school    has    forty-eight   speed-lathes   for 
wood-turning,  forty-eight  benches,  vises,  and  com- 
mon (non-cutting)  tools,  and  144  individual  sets 
of  edge-tools  in  as  many  drawers. 
'5 


226  HIGHER   GROUND. 

THE    MOULDING,    BRAZING,   AND   SOLDERING   ROOM. 

This  shop  contains  twenty-four  benches  and 
sets  of  tools,  flasks,  etc.,  for  moulding.  A  small 
gas-furnace  for  melting  alloys,  and  ladles  for  cast- 
ing, furnish  sufficient  practice  to  test  the  accuracy 
of  patterns  and  moulds.  Separate  benches  and 
furnaces  are  provided  for  brazing  and  soldering. 

THE    FORCING-SHOP. 

The  first  floor  of  the  building  is  devoted  to 
metal  work,  and  comprises  the  machine  and  black- 
smith shops.  The  blacksmith-shop  is  forty  feet 
square,  and  has  its  complete  equipment  of  twenty- 
two  forges,  anvils,  tubs,  and  sets  of  ordinary  hand 
tools.  The  blast  is  supplied  by  a  power  blower, 
and  a  large  exhaust  fan  *  keeps  the  shop  reason- 
ably free  from  smoke  and  gas. 

THE   MACHINE-SHOP 

is  40  x  50  feet.  It  possesses  an  equipment  of 
sixteen  engine-lathes,  as  follows  :  eight  1 4-inch 
Putnam  lathes  from  Fitchburg,  Massachusetts ; 
three  i4-inch  Star  lathes  from  Providence,  Rhode 
Island  ;  and  five  1 5-inch  Powell  lathes  from 
Worcester,  Massachusetts.  Also  four  speed- 
lathes,  a  post-drill,  a  planer  2i-inch  by  2i-inch 

1  This  fan,  a  "  Sturtevant "  with  a  delivery  of  18"  by  23", 
was  presented  to  the  school  by  Mr.  Sturtevant,  the  inventor. 


APPENDIX.  227 

by  5  feet,  a  small  hand  planer,  a  25-inch  goose- 
neck drill,  a  shaper  of  15  inches  stroke,  2  grind- 
stones, a  double  emery-grinder  and  a  gas-forge * 
and  anvil.  Ten  vises  and  benches  afford  oppor- 
tunity for  bench-work.  The  shop  is  furnished  for 
a  class  of  twenty  students  at  once. 

In  the  summer  of  1886  important  changes  were 
made  in  the  shop.  The  large  engine  was  taken 
out  and  on  the  floor  space  thus  gained  four  addi- 
tional Putnam  lathes  were  placed.  The  entire 
shop  was  double-floored  and  otherwise  improved. 

The  present  engine-room  is  below  this  shop. 
The  engine  is  capable  of  about  fifty  horse-power. 
It  has  a  i4-inch  cylinder  and  1 2-inch  stroke,  and 
runs  at  the  rate  of  170  revolutions  per  minute. 
It  was  built  specially  for  the  school  by  Messrs. 
Smith,  Beggs,  &  Rankin,  of  St.  Louis.  The  steam- 
generating  apparatus  of  the  University  consists 
of  a  battery  of  three  large  steel  boilers,  set  and 
furnished  in  the  most  approved  manner.  These 
boilers  furnish  heat  for  the  entire  group  of  Uni- 
versity buildings,  as  well  as  steam  for  the  engine 
in  the  shop.  The  equipment  of  steam  power 
furnishes  to  pupils  of  the  Third- Year  class  the 
means  of  becoming  familiar  with  machinery  on  a 
practical  scale. 

1  The  gas-forge  is  furnished  with  an  air  jet  by  the  West- 
inghouse  brake,  which  was  presented  to  the  school  by  the 
Westinghouse  Brake  Company.  The  air-pump  of  this  ma- 
chine is  also  used  to  exhaust  the  receiver  in  the  physical 
laboratory. 


228  HIGHER   GROUND. 


Details  of  Shop  Instruction. 

The  shop  instruction  is  given  similarly  to  la- 
boratory lectures.  The  instructor  at  the  bench, 
machine,  or  anvil,  fully  explains  the  principles  to 
be  used  or  illustrated,  executes  in  the  presence 
of  the  whole  class  the  day's  lesson,  giving  all 
needed  information,  at  times  using  the  blackboard. 
When  it  is  possible  the  pupils  make  working- 
drawings  of  the  piece  or  model  to  be  executed, 
and  questions  are  asked  and  answered,  that  all 
obscurities  may  be  removed.  The  class  then  pro- 
ceeds to  the  execution  of  the  task,  leaving  the  in- 
structor to  give  additional  help  to  such  as  need  it. 
At  a  specified  time  the  lesson  ceases  and  the  work 
is  brought  in,  commented  on,  and  marked.  It  is 
not  necessary  that  all  the  work  assigned  should 
be  finished ;  the  essential  thing  is  that  it  should 
be  well  begun  and  carried  on  with  reasonable 
speed  and  accuracy. 

All  the  shop-work  is  disciplinary  ;  special  trades 
are  not  taught,  nor  are  the  articles  manufactured  for 
sale ;  as  a  rule  the  products  of  the  shop  have  no 
value  except  as  exercises,  illustrating  typical  forms 
and  methods. 

The  object  of  the  school  is  education,  and  none 
of  the  class  exercises,  whether  in  the  shop,  the 
drawing  or  the  recitation  room,  can  be  supposed 
to  have  any  pecuniary  value.  The  most  instructive 


APPENDIX.  229 

tasks  have  no  outcome  except  in  the  intelligence 
and  skill  of  the  student  himself. 

The  scope  of  a  single  trade  is  too  narrow  for 
educational  purposes.  Manual  education  should 
be  as  broad  and  liberal  as  intellectual.  A  shop 
which  manufactures  for  the  market,  and  expects  a 
revenue  from  the  sale  of  its  products,  is  necessa- 
rily confined  to  salable  work ;  and  a  systematic  and 
progressive  series  of  lessons  is  impossible,  except 
at  great  cost.  If  the  object  of  the  shop  is  educa- 
tion, a  student  should  be  allowed  to  discontinue 
any  task  or  process  the  moment  he  has  learned  to 
do  it  well.  If  the  shop  were  intended  to  make 
money,  the  students  would  be  kept  at  work  on 
what  they  could  do  best,  at  the  expense  of  breadth 
and  versatility.  In  a  factory  intellectual  life  and 
activity  is  not  aimed  at ;  its  sole  object  is  the  pro- 
duction of  articles  for  the  market.  In  a  manual 
training  school  everything  is  for  the  benefit  of  the 
boy  ;  he  is  the  most  important  thing  in  the  shop ; 
he  is  the  only  article  to  be  put  upon  the  market. 

Even  in  manual  education  the  chief  object  is 
mental  development  and  culture.  Manual  dex- 
terity is  but  the  evidence  of  a  certain  kind  of 
mental  power;  and  this  mental  power,  coupled 
with  a  familiarity  with  the  tools  the  hand  uses,  is 
doubtless  the  only  basis  of  that  sound  practical 
judgment  and  ready  mastery  of  material  forces 
and  problems  which  always  characterizes  one  well 
fitted  for  the  duties  of  active,  industrial  life. 


230  HIGHER   GROUND. 

Hence,  the  primary  object  is  the  acquirement  of 
that  mental  clearness  and  intellectual  acumen 
which  is  the  natural  outgrowth  of  logical  processes 
fully  comprehended  and  intelligently  executed. 
This  thoughtful  activity  results  in  skill  in  the  use 
of  tools  and  materials.  The  production  of  specific 
articles  is  a  secondary  and  far  inferior  considera- 
tion. Moreover  the  training  must  be  general,  that 
its  possible  economic  application  may  have  the 
widest  range.  We  therefore  abstract  all  the  me- 
chanical processes  and  manual  arts  and  typical 
tools  of  the  trades  and  occupations  of  men,  ar- 
range a  systematic  course  of  instruction  in  the 
same,  and  then  incorporate  it  in  our  system  of  edu- 
cation. Thus,  without  teaching  any  one  trade, 
we  teach  the  essential  mechanical  principles  of 
all. 

Accordingly,  the  shop-training  is  gained  by 
regular  and  carefully  graded  lessons  designed  to 
cover  as  much  ground  as  possible,  and  to  teach 
thoroughly  the  uses  of  ordinary  tools.  This  does 
not  imply  the  attainment  of  sufficient  skill  to  pro- 
duce either  the  fine  work  or  exhibit  the  rapidity 
of  a  skilled  mechanic. 

How  the  Use  of  Tools  is  Taught. 

The  tools  of  a  shop  are  not  given  out  all  at 
once ;  they  are  issued  as  they  are  needed,  and  as 
a  rule,  to  all  the  members  of  the  class  alike. 


APPENDIX. 


I.    CARPENTRY. 


231 


In  carpenter  work  the  tools  used  are  :  the  cross- 
cut, tenon,  and  rip  saws  ;  steel  square,  try  square, 
bevel  and  gauge,  hammer,  mallet,  rule,  and  divid- 
ers, oil  stones  and  slips.  And  among  edge  tools  : 
the  jack  and  smoothing  planes,  chisels  and  gouges. 
Braces  and  bits,  jointer  planes,  compass  saws, 
hatchets  and  other  tools  are  kept  in  the  shop  tool- 
closet  to  be  used  as  needed. 

The  saw  and  the  plane  with  the  square,  chisel, 
and  gouge  are  the  foundation  tools,  and  to  drill 
the  pupils  in  their  use  numerous  lessons  are  given, 
varied  only  enough  to  avoid  monotony.  The  pupil 
being  able  to  plane  a  piece  fairly  well,  and  to  keep 
to  the  line  in  sawing,  the  first  and  most  important 
step  is  to  learn  to  "  lay  out "  his  piece  properly. 
This  requires  great  care  and  attention  to  details, 
and  precision.  Self-taught  workmen  are  always 
lacking  here.  The  next  step  is  to  teach  the  use 
of  the  chisel  in  producing  simple  joints  of  various 
kinds.  The  particular  shapes  are  given  with  the 
intent  to  familiarize  the  pupil  with  the  customary 
styles  and  methods  of  construction. 

Previous  to  the  execution  of  a  lesson  in  wood, 
each  pupil  is  required  to  make  a  working-drawing 
of  the  same  in  his  book,  inserting  all  necessary 
dimensions  in  figures. 

The  different  sizes  of  the  same  tool,  a  chisel  for 
instance,  require  different  care  and  methods  of 


232  HIGHER   GROUND. 

handling ;  and  the  means  of  overcoming  irreg- 
ularities and  defects  in  material  form  another 
chapter  in  the  instruction  to  be  given. 

With  the  introduction  of  each  tool  the  pupils 
are  taught  how  to  keep  the  same  in  order.  They 
are  taught  that  sharp  tools  are  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  good  work. 

II.    WOOD-TURNING. 

Five  or  six  tools  only  are  used,  and  from  pre- 
vious experience  the  pupils  know  how  to  keep 
them  in  order.  At  first  a  large  gouge  only  is  used, 
and  the  pupils  are  taught  and  drilled  in  its  use  in 
roughing-out  and  producing  cylinders  and  cones  ; 
then  concave  and  double-curve  surfaces ;  then  in 
work  comprising  all  these,  —  all  in  wood-turning 
with  the  grain.  A  wide  chisel  follows,  and  its  use 
in  conjunction  with  the  gouge  is  taught.  After 
this,  a  smaller  gouge,  chisel,  and  parting-tool,  and 
a  round  point  are  given,  and  a  variety  of  shapes 
are  executed.  Next  comes  turning  across  the 
grain ;  then  bored  and  hollow  work,  chucking, 
and  the  various  ways  of  manipulating  wood  on 
face-plates,  mandrels,  etc.  Finally,  turning  of 
fancy  woods,  polishing,  jointing,  and  construction 
work 

III.    FORGING. 

Work  in  the  blacksmith-shop  is  in  one  essential 
feature  different  from  any  other  kind.  Wood  or 
cold  iron  will  wait  any  desired  length  of  time 


APPENDIX.  233 

while  the  pupil  considers  how  he  shall  work,  but 
here  comes  in  temperature  subject  to  continual 
change.  The  injunction  is  imperative  to  "  strike 
while  the  iron  is  hot,"  and  hence  quick  work  is 
demanded, — a  hard  thing  for  new  hands.  To 
obviate  this  difficulty  bars  of  lead  are  used,  with 
which  the  lesson  is  first  executed,  while  all  the 
particulars  of  form  and  the  methods  of  holding 
and  striking  are  studied.  The  lead  acts  under 
the  hammer  very  nearly  like  hot  iron,  and  permits 
every  operation  on  the  anvil  except  welding. 

The  various  operations  of  drawing,  bending, 
upsetting,  punching,  welding,  tempering,  etc.,  are 
learned  in  connection  with  the  fabrication  of 
hooks,  stirrups,  chains,  swivels,  tongs,  hammers, 
and  machine-tools. 

The  final  exercises  in  the  shop  consist  in  the 
construction  of  a  set  of  tools  which  the  pupil  will 
himself  use  in  the  machine-shop  during  his  third 
year. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  lessons  in  the  art  of 
the  smith  is  that  of  managing  the  fire.  The 
various  kinds  of  heat  are  explained  and  illus- 
trated, the  habits  of  economy  of  both  iron  and 
heat  are  inculcated.  The  exercises  in  forging 
occupy  the  shop  time  for  thirty  weeks. 

IV.    PATTERN   MAKING  AND   MOULDING. 

The  course  in  pattern  making  and  moulding 
was  greatly  extended  during  the  past  year.  These 


234  HIGHER   GROUND. 

subjects,  with  some  exercises  in  soldering,  now 
occupy  ten  weeks  (that  is,  one  hundred  hours). 

In  connection  with  the  making  of  patterns,  their 
use  is  shown  by  brief  exercises  in  moulding.  Cast- 
ings are  made  of  lead  or  type-metal  and  plaster. 
Though  very  little  moulding  or  casting  is  done 
by  the  students,  enough  practice  is  given  to  il- 
lustrate the  principles  and  explain  the  use  of 
technical  terms. 

Last  year  a  complete  set  of  patterns  (that  is,  a 
large  number  of  sets  of  patterns)  of  a  three  or 
four  horse-power  engine  was  made,  moulded,  and 
cast  in  plaster.  In  this  way  several  barrels  of 
plaster  were  used  and  hundreds  of  models,  more 
or  less  perfect,  were  produced.  In  some  instances 
ornamental  or  art  forms  were  moulded  and  cast. 

V.     MACHINE-SHOP   WORK. 

In  the  machine  shop  it  is  obviously  out  of  the 
question  to  furnish  a  class  of  twenty  pupils  with 
a  lathe,  planer,  drill,  etc.,  each.  The  cost  of  such 
tools  and  the  size  of  such  a  shop  puts  the  matter 
beyond  discussion. 

Hence  it  is  not  possible  to  have  all  the  pupils 
in  a  class  of  twenty  performing  the  same  exercise 
at  once,  as  is  the  case  in  the  shops  just  described. 
Nevertheless,  this  fact  does  not  interfere  with  the 
use  of  systematic  lessons  and  uniform  practice. 
By  exercises  suited  to  the  uses  of  each  machine, 
and  to  bench-work,  and  by  regular  rotation  of  the 


APPENDIX.  235 

class,  each  pupil  does  the  same  work.  The  verbal 
instruction  and  illustration  at  the  machine  for  any 
lesson  is  given  to  the  whole  class  at  once,  while  a 
system  of  printed  cards  always  within  the  pupil's 
reach,  serves  to  refresh  his  memory  without  taxing 
the  instructor  when  several  days  intervene  be- 
tween the  instruction  to  the  class  and  the  pupil's 
performance.  Thus  it  is  practicable  to  secure  in 
a  large  degree  the  benefits  of  the  class  system. 
The  course  includes  work  at  the  — 

(a.)  Bench:  Use  of  hammer  and  chisel,  file  and 
scraper,  hand  dies,  taps  and  reamers. 

(b.)  Hand-Lathe :  Use  of  hand  tools,  drilling, 
counter-sinking,  filing,  and  polishing. 

(c  )  Engine-Lathe  :  Turning,  boring  with  bar  and 
lathe-tool,  screw-cutting,  external  and  internal  chuck- 
ing and  machine-fitting. 

(d.)  Drill  Press :     Drilling  and  boring. 

(e.)  Planer  and  Shaper  :  Producing  flat  or  curved 
surfaces  and  fittings. 

(/".)  Care  of  tool-room,  the  preparation  of  shop 
drawings  ;  study  of  the  engine  and  boilers. 

(g.)  Construction  of  a  machine. 

THE   SMALL   AMOUNT   OF    SHOP   PRACTICE. 

The  time  spent  in  shop-work  has  never  ex- 
ceeded two  hours  per  day,  unless  the  boys  have 
voluntarily  remained  after  hours,  that  is,  after 
3.30  o'clock,  for  additional  practice.  Moreover, 
from  these  two  hours  should  be  subtracted  fully 
fifteen  minutes  for  washing,  dressing,  etc.  A 


236  HIGHER   GROUND. 

week,  therefore,  represents  less  than  nine  hours 
of  actual  work  in  a  shop.  Hence,  in  placing  a 
value  upon  the  time  spent  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  a  "  day's  work  "  is  all  the  boys  have 
per  week.  For  carpentry  and  wood-turning  they 
have  three  hundred  and  eighty  hours,  or  thirty- 
eight  days  in  all  :  in  forging,  moulding,  brazing, 
and  soldering,  during  the  second  year,  three  hun- 
dred and  eighty-hours ;  in  iron-fitting,  turning, 
finishing,  etc.,  three  hundred  and  eighty  hours. 
They  are  thus  boys  of  very  limited  practice,  and 
while  they  ought  to  have  intelligent  ideas  of  tools 
and  their  uses,  of  the  laws  of  mechanism,  of  the 
properties  of  wood,  iron,  steel,  and  brass,  and 
understand  the  meaning  and  force  of  mechanical 
words  and  technical  terms,  one  ought  not  to 
expect  finished  work  from  their  hands. 

Literary  and  Scientific  Culture. 

It  has  not  been  thought  necessary  to  detail  the 
work  done  on  the  familiar  subjects  of  mathe- 
matics, science,  and  literature.  The  simultaneous 
development  and  discipline  of  intellectual  and 
physical  faculties  is  the  main  object  of  the  course. 
The  aim  is  to  do  thorough  work ;  to  lay  out  a 
fair  course  of  study  and  to  cover  it  well.  There 
is  no  laxity  in  book-work  in  consequence  of  the 
introduction  of  manual  features  in  the  daily  pro- 
gramme. 


APPENDIX.  237 


The  General  Theory  of  the  School. 

The  Manual  Training  School  is  not  an  asylum 
for  dull  or  lazy  boys.  It  clearly  recognizes  the 
pre-eminent  value  of  and  necessity  for  intellectual 
development  and  discipline.  In  presenting  some 
novel  features  in  its  course  of  instruction,  the 
managers  do  not  assume  that  in  other  schools 
there  is  too  much  intellectual  and  moral  training, 
but  that  there  is  too  little  manual  training  for  or- 
dinary American  boys.  This  school  exacts  close 
and  thoughtful  study  with  tools  as  well  as  with 
books.  It  proposes  by  lengthening  the  usual 
school-day  a  full  hour,  and  by  abridging  some- 
what the  number  of  daily  recitations,  to  find  time 
for  drawing  and  tool  work,  and  thus  to  secure  a 
more  liberal  intellectual  and  physical  develop- 
ment, —  a  more  symmetrical  education. 

"  Manual  training  is  essential  to  the  right  and 
full  development  of  the  human  mind."  Certain 
intellectual  faculties,  such  as  observation  and 
judgment  in  inductive  reasoning,  cannot  be  prop- 
erly trained  except  through  the  instrumentality 
of  the  hand.  The  proverbial  caution  of  the  prac- 
tical manipulator,  and  his  distrust  of  mere  theory 
(which  means  reasoning  based  on  assumed,  not 
real  facts),  shows  how  unsafe  is  reasoning  not 
founded  on  the  closest  observation  and  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  facts  of  nature.  Manual  train- 


238  HIGHER   GROUND. 

ing    cultivates    the    judgment    rather    than    the 
memory. 

Every  one  seems  to  admit  that  it  is  a  good 
thing  for  a  boy,  in  addition  to  his  literature,  sci- 
ence, and  mathematics,  to  understand  the  theory 
and  practical  use  of  ordinary  tools ;  to  be  able  to 
make  and  read  drawings  as  used  in  the  arts  ;  and 
to  have  some  cultivation  in  the  graces  of  form  and 
ornament.  The  question  is,  Where  shall  he  get 
these  things  ?  Some  say  in  private  shops  and 
offices ;  some  say  in  private  schools ;  others  say 
at  home  during  vacation.  Some  assume  that  it 
is  clear  even  without  experiment  that  such  things 
are  taught  more  quickly  and  better  at  home  than 
at  school.  Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  most  boys 
don't  learn  these  things  anywhere.  Those  who 
learn  the  theory  and  use  of  tools  in  private  (com- 
mercial) shops  and  offices  do  so  at  great  expense 
of  what  is  more  valuable  than  money  ;  the  train- 
ing generally  costs  an  unreasonable  waste  of  time, 
a  sacrifice  of  the  literary  and  scientific  parts  of 
education,  often  a  sacrifice  of  wholesome  associ- 
ations ;  and  generally  one  gets  only  a  narrow 
manual  training  after  all.  An  experience  of  many 
years  enables  the  Director  to  say  that  the  general 
use  of  tools  and  mechanical  processes,  together 
with  ordinary  draughting  (drawing  and  tool-work 
should  go  hand  in  hand),  can  be  taught  more 
quickly,  far  better,  and  at  much  less  cost  at  a 
properly  equipped  school  than  at  home.  No  one 


APPENDIX.  239 

who  has  seen  what  is  accomplished  in  this  direc- 
tion in  a  good  school  can  for  a  moment  be  in 
doubt  about  the  superiority  of  the  school  method. 

THE   HABIT   OF   THINKING. 

"  I  well  know  how  firmly  fixed  is  the  old  curric- 
ulum of  study  in  the  secondary  schools,  by  how 
many  traditions  it  is  supported,  and  how  unfa- 
miliar and  strange  the  manual  elements  appear  to 
teachers.  A  visit  to  our  school  generally  removes 
prejudice  and  puts  the  discipline  in  a  new  light. 
Unfavorable  criticism  usually  is  from  those  who 
have  never  seen  a  manual  training  school,  and  as 
would  be  expected  some  of  the  things  said  about 
us  are  marked  by  a  great  lack  of  appreciation  of 
our  methods  and  results. 

"  For  instance,  an  Illinois  professor  said  a  few 
years  ago  that  hammering  wood  was  such  a  differ- 
ent matter  from  hammering  iron  that  not  only 
was  skill  in  one  branch  of  no  value  in  the  other, 
but  that  it  was  a  positive  hinderance.  At  once 
the  argument  was  caught  up  by  the  opponents 
of  manual  training,  and  we  were  entertained  by 
learned  discussions  of  the  various  arts  of  ham- 
mering, by  those  who  really  knew  nothing  about 
them.  It  is  as  though  one  should  insist  that  a 
knowledge  of  French  is  a  hinderance  to  the  learn- 
ing of  Spanish,  or  a  knowledge  of  Latin  an 
obstacle  to  the  mastery  of  Greek.  It  has  been 
asserted  by  critics  that  there  can  be  no  such 


240  HIGHER   GROUND.      . 

thing  as  a  general  training  in  the  use  of  tools,  and 
they  point  to  the  cramped  muscles  and  unintelli- 
gent automatonism  of  a  man  who  for  years  has 
headed  pins  or  stamped  small  pieces  of  tin,  as  ex- 
hibiting the  baneful  effects  of  manual  training ! 
Is  it  possible  that  such  people  know  what  we 
mean  by  manual  training  ? 

"  Can  they  be  aware  that,  in  no  American 
manual  training  school  (and  there  are  no  such 
schools  in  France,  or  Germany,  or  Russia)  is  the 
number  of  hours  devoted  to  the  entire  series  of 
wood-working  tools  over  four  hundred  ?  That 
the  stage  of  mechanical  habit  is  never  reached  ? 
That  the  only  habit  actually  acquired  is  that  of 
thinking  ?  That  no  blow  is  struck,  no  line  drawn, 
no  motion  regulated,  from  muscular  habit  ?  That 
the  quality  of  every  act  springs  from  the  conscious 
will  accompanied  by  a  definite  act  of  judgment  ? 
Can  such  a  limited  training  produce  a  high  de- 
gree of  manual  skill  ?  Of  course  not.  We  have 
distinctly  stated  that  our  pupils  do  not  become 
skilled  mechanics,  nor  do  we  teach  them  the  full 
details  of  a  single  trade.  The  tools  whose  theory, 
care,  and  use  we  teach  are  representative,  and  the 
processes  which  we  teach,  just  far  enough  to  make 
every  step  clear  and  experimentally  understood, 
equally  underlie  a  score  of  trades.  I  say  experi- 
mentally understood,  by  which  I  mean  that  it  is 
not  enough  to  know  that  a  certain  outline  is  to  be 
produced,  or  a  certain  adaptation  is  to  be  secured, 


APPENDIX.  241 

but  one  must  know  just  the  forces  to  be  directed, 
the  motions  needed,  and  in  their  order,  and  all  as 
the  result  of  the  closest  attention  and  steady 
intellectual  activity. 

"  What,  then,  is  this  so-called  manual  training 
but  continuous  mental  discipline  ?  I  have  already 
spoken  of  the  mental  effect  of  science  study.  I 
claim  equally  beneficial  effects  for  the  thoughtful 
study  of  the  theory  and  use  of  typical  tools." 

THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF   NATURAL   APTITUDES. 

It  occasionally  happens  that  students  who  have 
special  aptitudes  in  certain  directions  find  great 
difficulty  in  mastering  subjects  in  other  directions. 
In  such  cases  it  is  often  the  best  course  to  yield 
to  natural  tastes,  and  to  assist  the  student  in  find- 
ing his  proper  sphere  of  work  and  study.  A 
decided  aptitude  for  handicraft  is  sometimes 
coupled  with  a  strong  aversion  to  and  unfitness 
for  abstract  and  theoretical  investigations.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that,  in  such  cases,  more  time 
should  be  spent  in  the  shop,  and  less  in  the  lec- 
ture and  recitation  room.  On  the  other  hand, 
great  facility  in  the  acquisition  and  use  of  lan- 
guage is  often  accompanied  by  a  great  lack  of 
either  mechanical  interest  or  power.  When  such 
a  basis  is  discovered,  the  lad  should  unquestion- 
ably be  sent  to  his  grammar  and  dictionary,  rather 
than  to  the  laboratory  or  draughting-room.  It  is 
confidently  believed  that  the  developments  of  this 
16 


242  HIGHER   GROUND. 

school  will  prevent  those  serious  errors  in  the 
choice  of  a  vocation  which  often  prove  so  fatal  to 
the  fondest  hopes. 

DIGNITY   OF   INTELLIGENCE   IN   LABOR. 

One  great  object  of  the  school  is  to  foster  a 
higher  appreciation  of  the  value  and  dignity  of 
intelligent  labor,  and  the  worth  and  respectability 
of  laboring-men.  A  boy  who  sees  nothing  in 
manual  labor  but  mere  brute  force,  despises  both 
the  labor  and  the  laborer.  With  the  acquisition 
of  skill  in  himself,  comes  the  ability  and  willing- 
ness to  recognize  skill  in  his  fellows.  When  once 
he  appreciates  skill  in  handicraft,  he  regards  the 
skilful  workman  with  sympathy  and  respect. 

Again,  it  is  highly  desirable  that  a  larger  pro- 
portion of  intelligent  and  well-educated  youth 
should  devote  their  energies  to  manual  pursuits 
or  to  the  development  of  mechanical  industries, 
both  for  their  own  sakes  and  for  the  sake  of  the 
occupations  and  for  society. 

Undoubtedly  the  common  belief  is  that  it  re- 
quires no  great  amount  of  brains  or  intelligence 
to  be  a  mechanic ;  and  those  who  go  through  or- 
dinary higher  schools  are  not  expected  by  their 
teachers  to  be  mechanics.  Every  bright  farmer's 
boy,  every  gifted  son  of  a  mechanic,  if  he  but  stay 
in  school,  is  sure  to  be  stolen  away  from  the  occu- 
pation of  his  father  and  led  into  the  ranks  of  the 
"  learned  professions." 


APPENDIX.  243 

This  loss  of  the  best  minds,  and  the  lack  of  the 
results  of  a  generous  education  does  much  to  give 
color  to  popular  prejudice,  and  to  keep  down  me- 
chanic arts  in  the  estimation  of  all.  This  result 
is  most  unfortunate  for  society.  It  creates  dis- 
tinctions which  ought  not  to  exist,  and  gives  rise 
to  false  estimates  of  the  comparative  value  of  the 
various  kinds  of  intellectual  culture.  "  The  suc- 
cessful conduct  of  any  business  demands  and  de- 
velops a  special  scholarship,  which  is  not  less 
valuable  as  a  means  of  discipline  because  it  is  so 
useful  as  a  source  of  wealth.  The  business  man 
may  be  narrow,  but  so  may  the  scholar ;  and  in 
either  case,  the  narrowness  results  not  so  much 
from  the  necessities  of  the  vocation  as  from  the 
character  of  the  man."  1 

Hitherto,  men  who  have  cultivated  their  minds 
have  neglected  their  hands ;  and  those  who  have 
labored  with  their  hands  have  found  no  oppor- 
tunity to  cultivate  their  brains.  The  crying  de- 
mand to-day  is  for  intellectual  combined  with 
natural  training.  It  is  this  want  that  this  school 
aims  to  supply.  Its  motto  is,  "  The  cultured  mind, 
the  skilful  hand." 

THE   GENERAL   VALUE   OF    MANUAL   TRAINING. 

It  is  not  assumed  that  every  boy  who  enters 
this  school  is  to  be  a  mechanic.     Some  will  find 
that  they  have  no  taste  for  manual  arts,  and  will 
1  Prof.  S.  Waterhouse. 


244  HIGHER   GROUND. 

turn  into  other  paths,  —  law,  medicine,  or  litera- 
ture. Some  who  develop  both  natural  skill  and 
strong  intellectual  powers  will  push  on  through 
the  Polytechnic  School  into  the  realms  of  profes- 
sional life  as  engineers  and  scientists.  Others 
will  find  their  greatest  usefulness  as  well  as  high- 
est happiness  in  some  branch  of  mechanical  work, 
into  which  they  will  readily  step  when  they  leave 
school.  All  will  gain  intellectually  and  morally 
by  their  experience  in  contact  with  things.  The 
grand  result  will  be  an  increasing  interest  in 
manufacturing  pursuits,  more  intelligent  mechan- 
ics, more  successful  manufacturers,  better  lawyers, 
more  skilful  physicians,  and  more  useful  citizens. 

THE   RESULTS   OF    EXPERIENCE. 

The  school  is  now  in  its  seventh  year.  From 
the  start  it  has  been  well  patronized,  and  vacant 
seats  have  been  few.  The  enrolment  shows  a 
steady  increase. 

The  zeal  and  enthusiasm  of  the  students  have 
been  developed  to  a  most  gratifying  extent,  ex- 
tending into  all  the  departments  of  work.  The 
variety  afforded  by  the  daily  programme  has  had 
the  moral  and  intellectual  effect  expected,  and  an 
unusual  degree  of  sober  earnestness  has  been 
shown.  The  wholesome  moral  effect  of  a  course 
of  training  which  interests  and  stimulates  the  ardor 
of  the  student  is  most  marked.  Parents  observe 
the  beneficial  influence  of  occupation.  The  sug- 


APPENDIX.  245 

gestions  of  the  day  fill  the  mind  with  healthy 
thoughts  and  appetites  during  the  leisure  hours. 
Success  in  drawing  or  shop- work  has  often  had 
the  effect  of  arousing  the  ambition  in  mathematics 
and  history,  and  vice  versa.  Gradually  the  stu- 
dents acquire  two  most  valuable  habits  which  are 
certain  to  influence  their  whole  lives ;  namely, 
precision  and  method. 

The  habit  of  working  from  drawings  and  to 
nice  measurements  has  given  the  students  a  con- 
fidence in  themselves  altogether  new.  This  is 
shown  in  the  readiness  with  which  they  undertake 
the  execution  of  small  commissions  in  behalf  of 
the  school,  and  the  handiness  which  they  display 
at  home.  From  the  testimony  of  parents,  the 
physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  effect  of  the 
school  is  exceedingly  satisfactory. 

THE    RECORD   OF   THE   GRADUATES. 

Four  classes  have  graduated  from  the  school. 
Much  interest  has  been  expressed  in  their  records 
as  affording  some  clew  to  the  influence  of  their 
training  in  the  school.  It  has  therefore  been 
thought  best  to  give  a  full  list  of  the  names  and 
present  occupations  of  the  first  three  classes  as 
fully  as  known.  At  the  same  time  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  full  influence  of  the  school 
is  to  be  found  only  by  following  the  careers  of  all 
who  have  been  for  a  longer  or  a  shorter  time 
under  its  influence.  Only  about  one  half  of  those 


246  HIGHER   GROUND. 

who  attend  the  school  remain  to  graduate,  and 
the  influence  of  the  training  has  been  scarcely 
less  marked  upon  those  who  have  been  in  the 
school  two  years  than  upon  the  graduates.  More- 
over, all  the  graduates  are  still  too  young  to  afford 
material  for  very  definite  conclusions. 

These  first  two  classes  had  no  opportunity 
while  in  school  to  study  Latin ;  consequently 
when  they  have  sought  to  enter  Polytechnic 
schools  or  colleges  requiring  Latin  before  ad- 
mission they  have  been  somewhat  embarrassed 
to  obtain  the  necessary  instruction  in  Latin.  All 
the  present  classes  have  had  opportunity  to  study 
Latin  in  the  school. 


Class  of  1883. 

Henry  H.  Bauer,  Farmer,  Dorchester,  111. 

John  Boyle,  Jr.,  B.  E.,  Fifth-year  student  in  Mining 
Engineering,  Washington  University. 

John  L.  Bryan,  Journeyman  in  Pipe  Works,  Wash- 
ington, Mo. 

Alexander  W.  Buchanan,  Student  in  Mechanical 
Engineering,  Cornell  University. 

Peyton  T.  Carr,  Clerk  office  of  Insurance  Com- 
missioner. 

Edward  E.  Davidson,  Partner  in  Real  Estate  busi- 
ness, St.  Paul,  Minn. 

Cornelius  V.  De  Jong,  Machinist. 

Harry  Deitrich,  Machinist,  Draughtsman,  Pattern- 
maker, etc.,  Brass  Foundry,  St.  Louis. 


APPENDIX.  247 

William  S.  Dodd,  Collector  Laclede  Gas  Works, 
St.  Louis. 

Henry  F.  Dose,  Student  University  of  Illinois. 

Wm.  J.  Downton,  Architect's  office. 

Theo.  Gluck,  Junior  Class  in  Mining  Engineering, 
Washington  University. 

S.  D.  Hayden,  Clerk  in  Southeastern  Railway  Office. 

Robert  L.  Hyatt,  Farmer,  St.  Louis  County. 

Conrad  S.  Ittner,  Jr.,  Bricklayer. 

Wm.  B.  Ittner,  Student  in  Architecture,  Cornell 
University. 

Albert  L.  Johnson,  Senior  Class  Civil  Engineering, 
Washington  University. 

Wm.  Love,  Assistant  Engineer  Missouri  Pacific 
Railway. 

Harry  W.  Lytance. 

Robert  H.  McMath,  B.  E.,  with  Adolphus  Meier  & 
Co.,  St.  Louis. 

Otto  L.  Mersman,  Merchant,  St.  Louis. 

Wm.  G.  Nixon,  Clerk  Supply  Department,  Iron 
Mountain  Railway. 

Everett  G.  Phillips,  Engineer  and  Shoemaker,  St. 
Louis. 

Wm.  K.  Roth,  Grocer,  St.  Louis. 

Justus  W.  Schmidt,  Draughtsman  Architect's  office. 

Greenfield  Sluder,  Medical  Student. 

Jules  C.  Smith,  Machinist. 

Herbert  Taylor,  Draughtsman. 

John  P.  Thul,  Senior  Class,  Dynamic  Engineering, 
Washington  University. 

John  F.  Valid,  Clerk  in  Commission  House. 


248  HIGHER   GROUND. 


Class  of  1884. 

Grant  Beebe,  Junior  Class,  Dynamic  Engineering, 
Washington  University. 

A.  Theodore  Bruegel,  Junior  Class,  Mechanical 
Engineering,  Lehigh  University. 

Geo.  R.  Carothers,  Principal  Technical  School,  Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio. 

Walter  R.  Coles,  Clerk  with  John  Coles  &  Co. 

Claude  N.  Comstock,  Junior  Class  in  Civil  Engi- 
neering, Columbia  College,  N.  Y. 

Geo.  D.  Eaton,  Principal  High  School,  Marine,  111. 

Alfred  C.  Einstein,  Stenographer  St.  L.  &  S.  F.  Ry. 

Hamilton  R.  Gamble,  Clerk  wholesale  drug  store. 

Charles  D.  Grayson,  Practical  Mailer,  St.  Louis. 

Geo.  N  Hinchman,  Jr.,  Draughtsman  in  Office  of 
Patent-lawyer. 

Ernest  C.  Klipstein,  Draughtsman. 

Charles  A.  Langdon,  Clerk. 

James  L.  Marks,  Machinist,  Shops  Mo.  Pac.  Ry. 
St.  Louis. 

Constant  Mathey,  Salesman  with  Mermod,  Jaccard, 
&Co. 

Alex.  D.  Mermod,  Ranchman,  Poncha  Park,  Col. 

Ralph  H.  Miller,  Principal  Toledo  Manual  Training 
School,  Toledo,  Ohio. 

George  S.  Mills,  Teacher  of  Drawing,  Toledo 
Manual  Training  School. 

William  O'Keefe,  Shipping  Clerk  of  Machinery. 

Otto  H.  Olfe,  Draughtsman  and  Superintendent 
with  W.  E.  Bent,  Architect,  St.  Louis. 

Harry  M.  Pflager,  Head  Draughtsman  Pullman 
Car  Works,  St.  Louis. 


APPENDIX.  249 

John  H.  Pope,  Junior  Class  in  Civil  Engineering, 
Washington  University. 

Edward  L.  Pretorious,  Clerk  business  department 
Westliche  Post,  St.  Louis. 

Wm.  F.  Richards,  Clerk  in  office  of  Vandalia  R.  R. 

Harry  C.  Scott,  Clerk  in  Railroad  office. 

Percy  S.  Silver,  Manufacturer,  Lexington,  Mo. 

Charles  F.  Springer,  Chicago. 

H.  Reed  Stanford,  Junior  Class  Dynamic  Engineer- 
ing, Washington  University. 

Homer  Wise,  Foreman  Collier  Lead  and  Oil  Works, 
St.  Louis. 

Edmund  H.  Wuerpel,  Student  of  Drawing  and 
Architecture. 

Harry  B.  Wyeth,  Sophomore  Class,  Michigan  Uni- 
versity, will  study  law. 


Class  of  1885. 

Wm.  F.  Barnes,  Teacher  Manual  Training  School, 
Eau  Claire,  Wis. 

Hatcher  Bates,  Farmer,  Mo. 

A.  M.  Bumann,  Teacher  Manual  Training,  Omaha 
High  School,  Neb. 

King  Charles  Barton,  travelling  in  Europe. 

Judson  S.  Bemis,  with  Bemis  Brothers  Bag  Co. 

Edgar  L.  Brother,  Teacher  Manual  Training,  Swath- 
more  College,  Penn. 

Thomas  W.  Booth,  St.  Louis,  Law  Student. 

Albert  H.  Buck,  Draughtsman  American  Brake 
Co.,  St.  Louis. 

Edward  H.  Chapman,  Farmer. 


250  HIGHER   GROUND. 

Frederick  A.  Chouteau,  Teacher  Manual  Training, 
Swathmore  College,  Penn.  - 

Geo.  W.  Danforth,  Cadet  U.  S.  Naval  Academy, 
Annapolis. 

H.  G.  Ellis,  Student  School  of  Fine  Arts,  Washing- 
ton University. 

Arthur  Feickert,  Baker,  Belleville,  111. 

Charles  O.  Fischer,  Office  of  Civil  Engineer. 

Wm.  F.  Hopper,  Apprentice  at  Stove  and  Machine 
Pattern-making,  St.  Louis. 

Clarence  H.  Howard,  General  Foreman  Motive 
Power,  Mo.  Pac.  Ry. 

H.  F.  S.  Kleinschmidt,  Student  Washington  Uni- 
versity, expects  to  teach. 

Albert  Koberle,  Student  Sophomore  Class,  Wash- 
ington University. 

Wm.  P.  Laing,  Machinist,  St.  Louis. 

Edward  L.  Lange,  Clerk  Hardware  Store. 

Ernest  E.  Lazar,  Baldridge  Type-writing  Co. 

Louis  D.  Lawnin,  Clerk  N.  O.  Nelson  Mfg.  Co. 

Edward  H.  Lebens,  Student  Sophomore  Class, 
Washington  University. 

John  J.  Lichter,  Jr.,  Student  Sophomore  Class,  Wash- 
ington University. 

Wm.  Alex.  Magee,  Practical  Electrician. 

Frank  W.  Morse,  Foreman  Wabash  Repair  Shops, 
St.  Louis. 

Frank  E.  Nulsen,  Student  Sophomore  Class,  Wash- 
ington University. 

Geo.  R.  Olshausen,  Student  Sophomore  Class, 
Washington  University. 

Charles  M.  Parker,  Student  Sophomore  Class,  Troy 
Polytechnic  Institute. 


APPENDIX.  251 

Frank  E.  Reel,  at  home. 

Louis  C.  Rohlfing,  Medical  Student. 

Edward  H.  Rattman,  Stenographer. 

James  L.  Sloss,  Student. 

Edward  Smith,  Lumber  Business. 

Geo.  M.  Stedman,  Agricultural  Works,  Aurora,  Ind. 

J.  Harrison  Steedman,  Student  Sophomore  Class, 
Washington  University. 

Hamilton  W.  Stone,  Teller, Bank,  St.  Louis. 

Wm.  T.  Treadway,  Machinist  Mo.  Pac.  Shops,  St. 
Louis. 

Harry  L.  Whitman,  in  business  with  his  father. 

Charles  H.  Wright,  Teacher  Manual  Training 
School,  Denver  University,  Col. 

In  submitting  the  above  report  of  the  condi- 
tion, methods,  aims,  and  results,  of  the  school 
during  its  six  and  a  half  years,  the  Director  is 
gratified  by  the  thought  that  in  spite  of  its  many 
shortcomings  the  school  has  served  to  demon- 
strate the  entire  feasibility  of  incorporating  the 
elements  of  intellectual  and  manual  training  in 
such  a  way  that  each  is  the  gainer  thereby ;  and 
that  he  has  correctly  read  the  public  demand  for 
an  education  which  shall  insure  the  most  valuable 
mental  discipline,  at  the  same  time  that  it  gives 
knowledge  and  skill  of  great  intrinsic  worth. 


THE  STANDARD  CANTATAS.  Their 
Stories,  their  Music,  and  their  Composers.  A  Hand- 
book.   By  GEORGE  P.  UPTON.   i2mo,  367  pages,  yellow 
edges,  price,  $1.50  ;  extra  gilt,  gilt  edges,  §2.00. 

In  half  calf,  gilt  top  ....  $3.25 
In  half  morocco,  gilt  edges  .  3.75 
In  full  morocco,  flexible  .  .  6.00 


The  "  Standard  Cantatas  "  forms  the  third  volume  in  the  uni- 
form series  which  already  includes  the  now  well  known  "  Stan- 
dard Operas"  and  the  "  Standard  Oratorios."  This  latest  work 
deals  with  a  class  of  musical  compositions,  midway  between  the 
opera  and  the  oratorio,  which  is  growing  rapidly  in  favor  both 
with  composers  and  audiences. 

As  in  the  two  former  works,  the  subject  is  treated,  so  far  as 
possible,  in  an  untechnical  manner,  so  that  it  may  satisfy  the 
needs  of  musically  uneducated  music  lovers,  and  add  to  their  en- 
joyment by  a  plain  statement  of  the  story  of  the  cantata  and  a 
popular  analysis  of  its  music,  with  brief  pertinent  selections  from 
its  poetical  text. 

The  book  includes  a  comprehensive  essay  on  the  origin  of  the 
cantata,  and  its  development  from  rude  beginnings  ;  biographical 
sketches  of  the  composers ;  carefully  prepared  descriptions  of 
the  plots  and  the  music ;  and  an  appendix  containing  the  names 
and  dates  of  composition  of  all  the  best  known  cantatas  from  the 
earliest  times. 

This  series  of  works  on  popular  music  has  steadily  grown  in 
favor  since  the  appearance  of  the  first  volume  on  the  Operas. 
When  the  series  is  completed,  as  it  will  be  next  year  by  a  volume 
on  the  Standard  Symphonies,  it  will  be,  as  the  New  York 
"  Nation  '  has  said,  indispensable  to  every  musical  library. 

Sold  by  all  booksellers,  or  mailed  on  receipt  of  price,  by 
A.   C.   McCLURG  &  CO.,   PUBLISHERS, 

COR.  WABASH  AVK.  AND  MADISON  ST.,  CHICAGO. 


THE    STANDARD    ORATORIOS. 
Their  Stories,  their  Music,  and  their  Composers.     A 
Handbook.     By  GEORGE  P.  UPTON.     121110,  335  pages, 
yellow  edges,  price,  #1.50;  extra  gilt,  gilt  edges,  $2.00. 

In  half  calf,  gilt  top  ....  $3.25 
In  half  morocco,  gilt  edges  .  3.75 
In  full  morocco,  flexible  .  .  6.00 

Music  lovers  are  under  a  new  obligation  to  Mr.  Upton  for  this 
companion  to  his  "Standard  Operas,"  —  two  books  which  de- 
serve to  be  placed  on  the  same  shelf  with  Grove's  and  Riemann's 
musical  dictionaries.  —  The  Nation,  New  York. 

Mr.  George  P.  Upton  has  followed  in  the  lines  that  he  laid 
down  in  his  "  Standard  Operas,"  and  has  produced  an  admira- 
ble handwork,  which  answers  every  purpose  that  such  a  volume 
is  designed  to  answer,  and  which  is  certain  to  be  popular  now 
and  for  years  to  come.  —  The  Mail  and  Express,  New  York. 

Like  the  valuable  art  hand-books  of  Mrs.  Jamison,  these 
volumes  contain  a  world  of  interesting  information,  indispensable 
to  critics  and  art  amateurs.  The  volume  under  review  is  ele- 
gantly and  succinctly  written,  and  the  subjects  are  handled  in  a 
thoroughly  comprehensive  manner.  —  Public  Opinion,  Wash- 
ington. 

The  book  is  a  masterpiece  of  skilful  handling,  charming  the 
reader  with  its  pure  English  style,  and  keeping  his  attention 
always  awake  in  an  arrangement  of  matter  which  makes  each 
succeeding  page  and  chapter  fresh  in  interest  and  always  full 
of  instruction,  while  always  entertaining.  —  The  Standard, 
Chicago. 

The  author  of  this  book  has  done  a  real  service  to  the  vast 
number  of  people  who,  while  they  are  lovers  of  music,  have 
neither  the  leisure  nor  inclination  to  become  deeply  versed  in  its 
literature.  .  .  .  The  information  conveyed  is  of  just  the  sort  that 
the  average  of  cultivated  people  will  welcome  as  an  aid  to  com- 
prehending and  talking  about  this  species  of  musical  composi- 
tion. —  Church  Magazine,  Philadelphia. 

Sold  by  all  booksellers,  or  mailed  on  receipt  of  price,  by 
A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO.,   PUBLISHERS, 

COR.  WABASH  AVE.  AND  MADISON  ST.,  CHICAGO. 


THE    STANDARD    OPERAS.      Their 
Plots,  their  Music,  and  their  Composers.     By 
GEORGE  P.  UPTON,  author  of  "  Woman  in  Music," 
etc.,  etc. 

izmo,  flexible  cloth,  yellow  edges $1.50 

The  same,  extra  gilt,  gilt  edges 2.00 


"  Mr.  Upton  has  performed  a  service  that  can  hardly  be  too 
highly  appreciated,  in  collecting  the  plots,  music,  and  the  com- 
posers of  the  standard  operas,  to  the  number  of  sixty-four,  and 
bringing  them  together  in  one  perfectly  arranged  volume.  ... 
His  work  is  one  simply  invaluable  to  the  general  reading  pub- 
lic. Technicalities  are  avoided,  the  aim  being  to  give  to  musi- 
cally uneducated  lovers  of  the  opera  a  clear  understanding  of  the 
works  they  hear.  It  is  description,  not  criticism,  and  calculated 
to  greatly  increase  the  intelligent  enjoyment  of  music."  — Boston 
Traveller. 

"  Among  the  multitude  of  handbooks  which  are  published 
every  year,  and  are  described  by  easy-going  writers  of  book- 
notices  as  supplying  a  long-felt  want,  we  know  of  none  which 
so  completely  carries  out  the  intention  of  the  writer  as  '  The 
Standard  Operas,'  by  Mr.  George  P.  Upton,  whose  object  is  to 
present  to  his  readers  a  comprehensive  sketch  of  each  of  the 
operas  contained  in  the  modern  repertory.  .  .  .  There  are 
thousands  of  music-loving  people  who  will  be  glad  to  have  the 
kind  of  knowledge  which  Mr.  Upton  has  collected  for  their 
benefit,  and  has  cast  in  a  clear  and  compact  form."  —  R.  H. 
Stoddard,  in  "  Evening  Mail  and  Express  "  (New  York). 

"The  summaries  of  the  plots  are  so  clear,  logical,  and  well 
written,  that  one  can  read  them  with  real  pleasure,  which  cannot 
be  said  of  the  ordinary  operatic  synopses.  But  the  most  im- 
portant circumstance  is  that  Mr.  Upton's  book  is  fully  abreast 
of  the  times."  —  The  Nation  (New  York). 


Sold  by  all  booksellers,  or   mailed,  post-paid,  on   receipt 
of  price,  by 

A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS, 
COR.  WABASH  AVE.  AND  MADISON  ST.,  CHICAGO. 


THE  BOOK-LOVER.     A  Guide  to  the 
Best    Reading.      By  JAMES    BALDWIN,    Ph.  D. 
Sixth  edition,  i6mo,  'cloth,   gilt  top,  201  pages.    Price, 

£1.25..  ,     . 

In  half  calf  or  half  morocco,  $3.00. 


Of  this  book,  on  the  best  in  English  Literature,  which  has- 
already  been  declared  of  the  highest  value  by  the  testimony  of 
the  best  critics  in  this  country,  an  edition  of  one  thousand  copies 
has  just  been  ordered  for  London,  the  home  of  English  Liter- 
ature, —  a  compliment  of  which  its  scholarly  western  author  may 
justly  be  proud. 

We  know  of  no  work  of  the  kind  which  gives  so  much  useful 
information  in  so  small  a  space. — Evening  Telegram,  New 
York. 

Sound  in  theory  and  in  a  practical  point  of  view.  The  courses 
of  reading  laid  down  are  made  of  good  books,  and  in  general,  of 
the  best.  —  Independent,  New  York. 

Mr.  Baldwin  has  written  in  this  monograph  a  delightful  eulo- 
gium  of  books  and  their  manifold  influence,  and  has  gained 
therein  two  classes  of  readers,  —  the  scholarly  class,  to  which  he 
belongs,  and  the  receptive  class,  which  he  has  benefited.  — 
Evening  Mail  and  Express,  New  York. 

If  a  map  needs  that  the  love  of  books  be  cultivated  within  him, 
such  a  gem  of  a  book  as  Dr.  Baldwin's  ought  to  do  the  work. 
Perfect  and  inviting  in  all  that  a  book  ought  outwardly  to  be,  ks 
contents  are  such  as  to  instruct  the  mind  at  the  same  time  that 
they  answer  the  taste,  and  the  reader  who  goes  carefully  through 
its  two  hundred  pages  ought  not  only  to  love  books  in  general 
better  than  he  ever  did  before,  but  to  love  them  more  wisely, 
more  intelligently,  more  discriminatingly,  and  with  more  profit 
to  his  own  soul.  — Literary  World,  Boston. 


Sold  by  all  booksellers,  or  mailed  on  receipt  of  price,  by 
A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS, 

COR.  WABASH  AVE.  AND  MADISON  ST.,  CHICAGO. 


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